Do You Know What Its Like?
by Lauraxo13
Summary: When my Dad died seven months ago, I didnt expect my mom to remarry so quickly. I didn't expect to have step sisters who treat me lke gum stuck on their jimmy choos and I didn't expect to fall for the rockstar next door. Read and Review?
1. Moving?

Bringing Me Back

_**Do You Know What It's Like**_

_**Authors Note: Okay, new story!! It's with camp rock characters but it's not set at camp rock and camp rock never happened. I will be writing it differently than the others, like I'm writing most of it before I post the actual story so yeah!! Hope you like it!**_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own anything**_

_**Chapter 1:**_

_**Moving?!**_

_Dear Diary,_

_I can't believe it! First she goes and gets married 6 months after his death and now she's telling me we're moving! 6 MONTHS! And after we just finished moving all their crap into our small house, now we have to go pack it all up again! She keeps telling me it will be good for me! That it will be like a "fresh start". I don't want a fresh start; I just want my old life back. I guess the only upside to this is that we're moving to New York! I love New York and always have. My dad did too! I remember when I was little, he would always tell me about it and we would always watch movies together that have great New York scenes! That was all before the accident. Well I got to go start packing. We move next week. Yeah, they have only known about it three weeks and decided to tell me just now!_

_Xoxo, Mitchie_

Mitchie got up from her bed and placed her diary back under her pillow. She had to start hiding it a few months ago after she found out that the she-devils were going through it.

She sighed heavily, got the cardboard boxes that her mother had given to her earlier and started packing up her bookshelf.

_Welcome to the rest of my bitter life._ She thought to herself.

Authors Note: So that's the first chapter! I know its short, but it was just like a sample of what's going on and what the story will be about and the chapters will be longer. Hope you liked it and plz stick with this story and review!

Xoxo,

Laura


	2. New York, New York

Do you know what it's like

_**Do you know what it's like?**_

_**Part 2**_

_**Authors Note: Back with the second chapter! Enjoy and review please! And thanks to all the people who have reviewed and added this story to their story alerts, so thanks!**_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Camp Rock**_

**Chapter 2:**

**New York, New York**

_**One week later**_

_Dear Diary,_

_Okay, so here I am sitting in the backseat of our caravan. My two evil stepsisters are asleep in front of me and so is my mom in shotgun. Mark is still wide awake and driving. It's late and we are supposedly a few hours away from our new home. I figured out another upside to this whole "fresh start" thing! We will be closer to Jack!_

_Jack is my older brother! He goes to NYU. I can't believe I completely forgot that is was in New York and only about 30 minutes away! Anyway, I'm going to try and get some sleep._

_Goodnight, xoxo, Mitchie_

Mitchie started dozing off but was waked up by someone calling her name.

"Michelle" her step-dad whispered to her trying to wake her up from his seat in front while still driving.

"It's Mitchie." She grumbled bitterly.

"Yeah, yeah, do you want anything to eat while we're here, I'm not going to wake the others up but I thought since you were up before you might not be asleep yet and maybe hungry? So do you want anything?" he asked politely

"No thank you Mark." She said shortly.

"Michel- Sorry, Mitchie, how many times have I told you to call me "dad"." And with that he left to go inside the fast food joint.

Mitchie hands balled into fists and she cringed when he said "dad". Its not that Mark wasn't nice and everything, he was and polite too. It's just that he was trying to be her dad. He wasn't. She had a dad and she doesn't want another one! And then there's also the baggage he brought along with him. Or in other words, his daughters! When Mitchies mom married Mark, This had gotten Mitchie two horrid stepsisters. They thought they were all that and they made Mitchies life torture!

* * *

_**2 hours later**_

**Mitchies POV**

We got here about 2 hours since my last entry. Everybody else had woken up and was getting out of the car. We had decided that since it was so late, we would only take the necessities out of the car for now and get the rest of the stuff tomorrow. The mom led and showed each of us to our rooms. Mom and Mark chose our rooms so there wouldn't be any arguments. Our electricity wasn't on yet and wouldn't be till tomorrow so we only had a flashlight! From what I could tell, Veronica's room was about the size of my old room which wasn't small but it wasn't huge like a master bedroom. Hilary's room was right next to hers and there rooms were connected by a bathroom and it was the same size as Veronica's.

They went straight to bed when we found our rooms and that left me and my mom to find my room. Mark was getting their stuff out of the car still.

We came to a door through the other hallway. My mom opened it.

I stepped inside and gasped. It was huge. Much bigger than my former bedroom at our old house, not to mention veronica and Hilary's! From what I could tell it was a light color wall. I took a long look around and my eyes fell on a double door leading to what looks like to be a balcony! I went on to it and looked up at the bright night sky. Stars were out tonight and it was an absolutely breathtaking sight. I went back in and found out I had my very own bathroom!

"We thought you would like it!" my mom said upon seeing the small smile on my face.

"You can thank Mark; it was his idea that you get the second master bedroom. For some reason there are two in this house. Now get some sleep we have a long day tomorrow!" I nodded and changed into my pjs and set out the sleeping bag on the floor of my new beautiful room! I couldn't wait to see the she-devils faces when they see my room! Maybe I won't let them for a while…

And with that I drifted off to sleep.

* * *

**Shane's POV**

It was late, another night of fighting with my band mates! How fun… not.

I went upstairs to my room in the house we shared. That was a genius idea… again not.

I stopped just outside my bedroom door and looked out the window at the sky, it was a beautiful night. I looked down to see a van in the next driveway. People were getting out and from what I could see there were the parents (I assumed), and three teenage girls… great, with my like more crazy obsessed fans.

Just what I need, to have stalkers live right next-door to me!

I went into my room and shut the door and went to sleep.

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**Authors Note: Well that's it for now! I hope you like it so far, it's longer than the last chapter but I will make the next chapters longer! I will probably make a few more chapters before I actually post this story! Review please! I have one more chapter written already, so ill probably write another one before I post that because I want to stay on top of this story.**


	3. Meeting The Neighbors

Do You Know What It's Like

_**Do You Know What It's Like**_

_**Part 3**_

**Authors Note: I just decided to write a little of this chapter before I go to sleep, cuz I feel like writing! On with the story!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any characters I may use except the ones I made up, and I do not own "Ever After"**

* * *

**Chapter 3:**

**Meeting the Neighbors **

**Mitchies POV**

I woke up the next morning to the sun shining through my light colored curtains. It made the room look peaceful and beautiful!

I looked around at the few bags dropped carelessly around my room. I got up and got dressed.**(Link in profile to oufit)**

I decided to wear jeans and one of my favorite shirts! I also have my purity ring that my parents gave me when I was 13. I put on a little makeup too.

I walked down stairs to further explore my new house. Or mansion, I should say with the size of this thing!

The house was beautiful. Very spacious too. After I looked at the rest of the house, I walked to the front hallway and saw my evil step sisters in some revealing clothing staring focused out the window.**(again, link for clothes in my profile)**

"What? Do you see a squirrel you find interesting?" I asked.

"No." Snapped Marguerite. Her real name's Candace but my brother and I call them marguerite and Jacqueline. You know, like the story "Ever After"? The two evil stepsisters? The other ones name is Hilary. Anyway, moving on.

"There just happens to be celebrities living next to us!" squealed Jacqueline.

"Whoop-to-do! I'm sure there'll be delighted to have two new stalkers added to the list!" I said.

"Ugh, whatever. Your just jealous because they'll fall in love with me and you'll be left out in the dust… just like unusual." Marguerite said.

"Yeah, so jealous of you." I said sarcastically.

I walked outside and got two of my boxes from the truck to take to my room.

I walked back in and _they _were standing there with smirks on their faces.

"Why do you even bother putting on makeup? It doesn't do any good. You're ugly. Has anybody ever said that to you? They were probably just being nice. I bet your dad said that you were beautiful. Am I right? Well, thank god he's dead so now he can't fill you with his lies. Why don't you just go cry now?" Marguerite said harshly.

I could feel the tears gathering in my eyes. That was low. Even for her.

I wouldn't let them see me cry, so I dropped the boxes and ran to my bedroom. My eyes were blurry from the tears and of course being the klutz I am, I tripped over one of my mother's boxes in the hall and fall. But I recovered quickly and continued my way to my room.

As I began to shut the door, I could still hear them laughing from downstairs. I sunk down behind my door and cried. I looked at where I had hit my knee. I should have a bruise, but other than that, I was fine. Well, not really, but physically, yeah.

* * *

_Meanwhile…_

**Shane's POV**

Nates making me go over to meet the new neighbors with him and Jason, so now I actually have to get dressed!

We were walking up to the house when I looked around and my eyes landed on two girls peering out at us through the front window. When they saw that I saw them they quickly ducked down. I knew it. They were some obsessed fan chicks.

We walked up and saw the parents?

"Hi." Said Nate.

"Hello." They chorused.

"I'm Nate Addison; this is Jason Black and Shane Gray." He said introducing us.

"Oh, yes, you boys are in the band right?"

We nodded in response.

"My daughters love you guys."

"So I noticed." I mumbled under my breath and Nate elbowed me and shot me a look to say "behave".

"Well, it's nice to meet you. Come on in and we'll introduce you to the rest of the family." We followed him inside, where there was two boxes thrown on the floor in the front hallway, we walked in to the living room and the girls I saw earlier were sitting on the couch like waiting for us to come in. One had a creepy smile on her face and the other I think was trying to look seductive.

She does know her father is right next to us right?

Anyway, these girls are wearing some pretty revealing clothing for their age.

But wait, I thought there was a third one?

"Girls, you obviously know who theses people are. You have more than enough posters of them."

"Funny dad. But you can never have enough pictures of these guys." She got up and walked over to us and gave each of us and bone-crushing hug that went on for way to long.

"Please, sit down guys." The mother said gesturing to seats beside the girls.

We all reluctantly sat down and they sat closer to us.

"Oh, sorry, we forgot to introduce ourselves. I'm Mark Adams, this is my beautiful wife, Connie, and these gorgeous girls are Candace and Hilary." He said while pointing to everyone as he called there names.

"Please feel free to call us Mark and Connie." Mrs. - Connie told us.

"Girls, where's Michelle? She was supposed to come down and get some of her things this morning but she only came out once." Mark asked the girls.

Hilary turned to look at Candace worried and nervous. Candace shot her a look.

"Oh, yeah. Well she was coming in from the truck with a few boxes and she looked really pretty, so I said- "awe, Mitchie, you look beautiful in that."- And then she dropped the boxes and ran upstairs crying hysterically. I think it reminded her of _him_. Maybe he used to call her beautiful or something? I don't know, but I think itd be best if we leave her alone for now."

This girl was good at making stuff up on the spot, because even I didn't believe what she had just said and I'd known her for 5 minutes. But when I looked over at Mark I saw him nod solemnly. He actually bought that?

There was a short silence and then Candy broke it.

"Hey, you guys should come over for dinner tonight. That would be awesome, right daddy?" I silently prayed that he said they should finish unpacking first but then…

"I don't see why not, I mean, if you guys don't mind a little mess." He told us.

"No problem, what time?" Nate, ugh, why did he have to be so polite?

"Umm, how about 6:30 ish." Connie said.

"Great, thanks. We should probably get going now though."

We thanked them and said goodbyes and got more hugs from the girls. Then we left. Thank Goodness but we still had to go back later tonight.

But I got to thinking about that Mitchie girl. And what Cand-something said about _Him. _I wonder what happened, maybe we'll find out tonight.

* * *

**Hoped you liked it!**

**Xoxo, Laura**


	4. Dinner Party

_**

* * *

**_

Do you know what it's like?

_**Part 4**_

_**Authors Note: okay so here's the fourth chapter of the story! Hope you like it!**_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own anything camp rock, Disney or anything you may recognize in this story! All I own is my made up characters!**_

* * *

**Chapter 4:**

**Dinner Party**

**Mitchie`s POV**

I had been up in my room for about in hour now. I wrote a song to help me feel better and it did. I calmed down a lot but then my mom had to go and ruin it!

"Honey can I come in for a second?" my mom asked from outside my door.

"Yeah, I guess." I responded.

She walked in and sat down on the edge of my bed.

"Sweetie, I just wanted to come and tell you that we're having company tonight for dinner." She told me.

"What? We just moved here. We're not even unpacked yet. Who's coming over?" I asked.

"The next door neighbors and we asked and they don't mind a little mess. Sweetie comes on, it will be fun!" she tried to reason with me but what's the point. But I wonder who the lucky stars are that get to spend a whole evening in this house.

"They are coming over at 6:30, so be ready for then." And with that she left.

Whatever. I'm not going down to dinner, I just lost my appetite.

I should write another song!

I picked up my acoustic and started playing around with some hooks.

* * *

**Mean while with Shane**

"I can't believe you said yes!" I exclaimed.

"Shane, it's called being polite." He stated back calmly.

"You couldn't be polite by saying- "oh, how thoughtful of you to invite us, but we really should let you settle in first."- you couldn't say anything like that instead?" I asked.

"Wow that actually was really polite… I never thought that you could come up with something like that! But no, we should get to know them Shane."

"What, so the creepy stalkers could make money by selling our used tissues?" I said

"You're overreacting." He said calmly, dang, I hate when's he's all calm while i`m yelling. It's so frustrating!

"Relax, you have a long time till you have to start getting ready, go play guitar hero with Jason, or write a song or something." He said before he left.

* * *

**Mitchie`s POV**

**6:30 pm**

I heard the doorbell ring and then I heard marguerite and Jacqueline scrambling out of their bedrooms to see who can answer it first.

I peeked out my door to see what they were wearing tonight for this special occasion. And oh my gosh did I feel sorry for the "celebrities" that have to spend the whole night with them!**( Link in profile to outfits)**

They got down stairs and I heard the door open and Mark greeting the guests politely.

"Michelle, come on down for dinner. Our guests are here." He called up to me.

"I'm not hungry!" I called back down. I really don't care if "our guests" heard me or not. "And it's Mitchie!" I retreated back to my room to finish my new song.

* * *

**Shane's POV**

We were at the door and Jason rang the doorbell. It was a few seconds before we heard shuffling coming from inside. The door opened to reveal the girls from before in different clothing. Not as revealing but even tighter. Oh joy.

Then Mark showed up just as Candy or whatever her name is said something.

"Hey Boys, come on in." He welcomed us.

He turned to the stairs.

"Michelle, come on down for dinner. Our guests are here." He called up to Michelle? I guess Mitchie is a nickname.

"I'm not hungry! And it's Mitchie!" A voice said back to him. Mark just sighed and shook his head slightly.

Well, that was pretty rude. I mean, we are connect three. Who wouldn't want to spend the evening with us? She must be crazy. But then again, I don't want to have dinner with those girls too. But there sisters, so they probably aren't the problem.

I wonder why she won't have dinner with us. I don't know why, but I get the feeling she's different from these girls.

* * *

**After Dinner**

Dinner was delicious. Connie's a great cook, but then again that's to be expected since she does own her own catering business.

Lucky for me though, I got seated between Candace and Hilary. And yes, I finally learned their names.

Just as Connie and Mark were serving dessert, there was a knock on the door and I heard it open.

Then a guy looking about Jason's age came in to the dining room.

"Oh sorry didn't mean to interrupt your dinner. I just came to say hi and to see Mitchie. But I can see she's not here." He said while looking at Candace and Hilary's outfits with a look of disgust on his face.

"No, actually, she's upstairs, she wasn't hungry." Explained Connie.

"Oh, well I will go say a quick hi to her, and sorry again for interrupting your dinner. Hey, you guys are in a band aren't you?"

We nodded in response.

"Oh, cool, well it was nice meeting you, I'm Jack." He said while shaking each of our hands.

"See you guys later, and see you later too." He said to us and Connie and mark.

"Marguerite. Jacqueline." He nodded in their direction.

"Why do you keep calling us that?" Whined Candace.

Me and the guys were trying to hide our chuckles though because we got the joke. We all had to read that book for school.

He left to go find Mitchie I assume. And we got back to our dessert.

Soon after we went home, politely denying the invites from the girls to stay longer and go for a swim. I walked up to my room and crashed on my bed. Pretty soon I was asleep.

* * *

**Mitchie`s POV**

A little while after I had told Mark I wasn't hungry, there was a knock on my door.

I grumbled and got up; ready to yell at whoever was there but as soon as saw who was behind it, I hugged him as tight as I could.

"Jack, what are you doing here?" I asked

"What? Not happy to see me?" he joked.

"Come on, you know I'm ecstatic that you're here!" I said.

"Well, I can't stay for long, dorm curfew and all but I just wanted to come by and see my favorite sister!" He said.

"I'm your only sister." I said back.

"You can never take a compliment, can you?" he laughed.

"But anyway, I really better get going. But I promise, we will see each other soon and hang out all the time! Okay?" he asked

"Okay." I looked down.

He left, and I changed into my pj`s and watched some _Grey`s anatomy_! It's helpful that I can take my mind off my own problems and focus on the character's problem.

After an episode of that, I was so tired, I turned of the TV and went to sleep.

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_**Hope you liked it! Review and tell me what you thought please**__** and check out the poll in profile that I would really appreciate your votes for!**_

_**Xoxo, **_

_**Laura**_


	5. Meeting Mitchie

_**Do you know what it's like?**_

_**Part 5**_

_**Authors Note: okay, so here is the fifth chapter! And just a reminder, all links to outfits are in my profile if I can't get them on the story page! Enjoy! **_

* * *

**Chapter 5:**

**Meeting Mitchie**

**Mitchie`s POV**

I woke up and went downstairs to the kitchen. After skipping dinner last night, I was starved! As I was walking through the hallway I noticed that even more boxes had been brought in so it was hard to walk through. I went to open the fridge when a note on the counter caught my eye.

_Michelle,_

_Your mom and I are out for the day looking at wallpaper and such so we can decorate our new room and we are also looking for some new furniture for our room since we got rid of most of our old things. The girls are out at the local community center trying out for the cheerleading team and then they said they were going to the mall afterwards so don't expect them home anytime soon. So you have the house to yourself today! And maybe you could unpack a few things for us… hint, hint! But anyways, see you late tonight!_

_Love, dad_

Ugh, _dad?_… who does he think he is? But on the good note: I have the house to myself for the whole day!

I got a pint of chocolate frozen yogurt( yes, my family is very healthy eh?) , one of the few things we had in the fridge, out and grabbed a spoon from one of the open boxes and ran upstairs to my room!

It was about 9:30 am right now so I had a good 11 hours on my own! I got in my room and changed into some of my favorite sweats along with some comfy slippers! I picked up my guitar and started playing the first song I wrote last night.**(Link to outfit in my profile)**

_Spitting fire back forth now,_

_Times have changed in just a few months,_

_Neighbors complaining from the fighting,_

_Why cant things are the same?_

_And why cant I,_

_Get through the night?_

_Without another fight, Im tired of the hurting_

_Is it really worth it? Am I all alone again _

_Cuz I'm kind of feeling like I'm screaming with my mouth shut,_

_When it's really open_

I heard the doorbell ring and stopped. I put my guitar down and headed downstairs.

* * *

**Shane's POV**

I woke up this morning to a banging noise. I looked over at my clock that read 9:30 am in red digital numbers. I got up and opened my door to see Nate.

"Hey man, I just wanted to tell you that I got us the rest of the week off to make up for making you put up with that whole thing yesterday. Oh and your welcome." He said while smirking.

"Nate, Nate, Nate, have I ever told you how much I love you and you're sneaky but brilliant ways of getting breaks for the band?" I asked suddenly filled with energy.

"No." he answered.

"Well, I do!" And with that said, I pushed him out of the way in order to go get changed. I walked by my clothes from last night. I walked right by them but then walked back a little bit so I was standing beside them.

"Shoot, shoot, shoot!" I scolded myself.

How could I have been so stupid? I could hear Nate`s sarcastic answer if I had asked that where he could hear me.

I left my jacket at their house last night! My favorite jacket too! Ugh, great, just great. Now have to go and get it and see _them_ again.

I slowly went to my closet and got some clothes. Suddenly, the energy from before was slowly dissolving. "I'll just go over, ask for it and get out quickly." I said talking to myself. "Say I can't stay for long because I…" I smirked coming up with a great and believable excuse. "I promised Jason I would build him a birdhouse."

"You will? Thanks buddy!" Said Jason from where he (apparently) was at my bedroom door. He left skipping too soon for me to say anything.

Ugh, great now I have to face the stalkers _and_ build him a stinking birdhouse.

I got dressed and started walking downs the stairs to my doom.

I was almost across the lawn. I'm getting closer to their front step. I was at the front step. I'm standing in front of their front door and I was having a staring contest with the doorbell. I slowly reached up to it and I was two centimeters away, I could hear whatever music was playing barely.

It's now or never Shane. All you have to do is go in, get it and come back out. It will be quick and easy. Just do it.

I finally got the nerve and pressed the doorbell. I heard the music stop and a few minutes later; I heard movement behind the door. I was looking at my feet dreading what was going to happen next when I heard the door open. I looked up to see a beautiful girl standing there staring at me.

* * *

**No One's POV**

Mitchie opened the door to find a guy looking down. He looked up and he stared with his mouth slightly opened.

She knew who he was as soon as he saw him. It was Shane Gray. _So this is one of the three guys who had to go through torture last night, hmm, interesting. _

He was still staring at her so she decided to break the silence.

"Ahem." She cleared her throat.

"Oh, sorry. Umm, Hi, I'm Shane." He said while holding out his hand.

"I know." She stated while taking his hand.

Shane chuckled. "Right."

"I'm Mitchie." She told him

"Oh, you're Mitchie?"

She raised her eyebrows at him.

"Well, I heard you last night and your family talked a little bit about you. Not exactly to us… but in front… of us…" he rambled.

She nodded while he continued talking.

", so yeah." He finished.

* * *

**Shane's POV**

I finished with my stupid rambling.

"Umm, do you need something or did you come to see mar- Candace," she corrected herself; I guess she's not the only one who uses that nickname. "And Hilary, because there actually not here right now." She continued.

As soon as she said that last thing I blew a sigh of relief and started cheering on the inside while I stayed calm on the outside.

"Oh actually yeah, I forgot my jacket here last night." I answered back.

"Right, well come on in, I'll get it for you." She said while stepping back and opening the door wider so I could step through.

"Thanks." I said.

I stepped inside to see even more boxes than last night crowding the front hallway.

"Wow, even more boxes than last night." I said while looking around.

"Oh yeah, this house is a zoo right now." She replied.

We walked through to the dining room where I saw my jacket draped over a chair. She picked it up and handed it to me.

"Thanks."

"Your welcome."

We walked back into the kitchen.

"So where is everybody?" I asked, trying to make small talk. I really wanted to get to know her better. She really is different from her sisters; she didn't scream when she saw me or keep staring or anything!

"Umm, well Candace and Hilary are trying out for cheerleading and then going to the mall and my mom and mark are looking for new furniture for their room and wallpaper and paint or something like that." Said Mitchie.

"Why did you call your dad by his first name?" I asked while she sat down and I mimicked her actions.

"He's _not_ my dad." She snapped lightly. (A/N: What I mean by this is that she didn't snap really harsh but sort of just stating that he's not her dad bitterly and with a little anger. Hope that clears it up)

"Oh, sorry, I just thought… he… nobody ever said anything. I'm sor-

"Please, don't start rambling again." She said.

I laughed a little at this.

"And, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to snap, it's just kind of a sore subject." She explained.

"It's okay, we won't talk about it and I won't bring it up. Sorry again. And for the rambling." Shane said.

"Thanks." She said

"So how do you like the neighborhood so far?" I asked trying to get away from the uncomfortable silence that had taken over.

"Well, I haven't been out of the house since I got here but the flowers outside look nice." She stated while getting a thing of frozen yogurt I think it was out of the freezer (A/N: they have more than one pint of this stuff, the one from before is still up in her room though).

She then grabbed a spoon from one of the boxes and offered me one in which I accepted.

She opened the carton and we dug in.

"Well, it's pretty nice here, you have to take a walk around sometime and that's an order." I joked.

"Will do." She said

Ring… ring…

My phone started ringing and I picked up. It was Jason

"Hello?"

"_Hey buddy!"_

"Oh hey Jase."

"_Listen, me and Nate need you back here ASAP! We are also going to the mall in a bit and we know you wanted to get some more hair products since you're almost out so you need to come quick!"_ He said. I didn't want to go but they said ASAP so something must be up, and I really do need hair products.

"Yeah, ok, I'll be right there." I said a little disappointed that I couldn't stay and get to talk to Mitchie more.

I hung up and looked up at Mitchie who was looking back at me.

"Got to go?" she asked

"Yeah, sorry, but Jason calls…"

"It's fine." She said with a small smile.

We stood up and she walked me to the front door. I made sure to bring my jacket this time; I didn't want to have to come back in time to see Candace and Hilary.

"Well, it was nice to finally meet you Mitchie." I said

"Yeah you to Shane."

Then an awkward silence fell upon us again like when you have a first date with a girl and you're together on her front porch and you don't know whether to kiss her or not. Well, minus the kissing part, but the awkward silence, defiantly.

I finally broke it after 45 seconds.

"So maybe I'll see you around?" I asked.

"Yeah, sure." She said.

I began to walk out the door but not before turning around and saying one last thing.

"Oh, and by the way; love the slippers." I smirked and with that I left, not seeing her reaction.

I got home and went to find Nate and Jason, I found them sitting down in the den. Nate strumming his guitar and Jason playing guitar hero.

"Hey, what's the big emergency?" I asked.

"Oh, there is none." Answered Jason

"Huh?" I asked confused.

"I made it up so I could get you out of the torture. Aren't I brilliant?" he asked happily.

"Yeah, brilliant." I said bitterly, upset that I left Mitchie for nothing.

* * *

**Mitchie`s POV**

I watched Shane leave and looked down at my slippers and smiled a little. I could feel myself blushing a bit and closed the door.

I had just met Shane Gray. He seemed pretty nice; nothing like the media portrays him to be like. He was actually kind of sweet to let the whole Mark subject go.

But whatever, it's not like I care anyways. All I care about is my music and my brother. Besides, he was probably just being nice or something. Pitying me.

I went back upstairs and started playing the song again. This was going to be an awesome day!

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_**Authors Note: 10 pages!!! That's pretty long, that's the longest chapter I've ever written I think! Oh and by the way, check out my profile for a poll that I would really like opinions on and please if you have the time to review and tell me if you like the story or not, and maybe some ideas on what you might like to see happen! Hope you liked it!**_

_**Xoxo,**_

_**Laura**_


	6. RunIns

_**Do you know what it's like?**_

_**Part 6**_

_**Authors Note: Umm, enjoy and please review and tell me your thoughts!**_

_**And thanks to everyone who has reviewed so far, I really do appreciate it and I try to reply to most people!**_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own camp rock, Abercrombie and Fitch or anything else you may recognize.**_

**Chapter 6:**

**Run-ins**** (stupid name I know but I just thought for a good 6 minutes (lol) and this was all I could come up with!)**

**Shane's POV**

An hour after I came back from Mitchie`s and now I'm standing outside the mall with Nate and Jason in our disguises.

We walked in and immediately turned to our right to head into Abercrombie and Fitch.

We spent a good half hour in there and then I headed to my hair place to stock up on some products. I was deciding weather to get an extra large bottle of conditioner and then two small bottles of shampoo or just a normal sized bottle for each when I heard it.

"Omg! Shane is that you?" I heard a squeal from behind me. I cringed and turned around slowly praying it was just my imagination.

It was Candace with Hilary.

I considered being really sarcastic and saying "it aint the Easter bunny" or saying "nope, sorry not that Shane guy." But they couldn't be that stupid. Well, maybe…

"Oh, hey ladies. What are you doing here?" I asked with a slight annoyance obvious in my voice.

"Shopping, duh! But we should totally grab a bite together right now! You know, catch up!" she batted her freakishly long eyebrows at me.

"Uh, you know what, I actually just ate. And, also I'm just paying for these and then heading home. Its one of my days off and I should really catch up on my sleep." I added in just in case so she wouldn't try anything else.

"Oh. Hey, there's Nate and Jason! NATE! JASON!" she yelled to them.

I saw them look over and frown slightly but then sauntered over to us.

"Hey, Candace, Hilary." Nate acknowledged

"It sucks that we just ran into you and you guys are ready to leave so soon. But you guys do deserve some sleep. You give _so _much!" Candace exclaimed and I nodded subtly to Nate and Jason to play along. Jason didn't get the hint.

"What are you talking about; we just got here 45 minutes ago. We're not leaving yet!"

"Yeah but Jase, we've been to the stores we really needed to go already and…" Nate paused to give a fake yet Oscar winning yawn "I'm in need of some beauty sleep." He said to Jason

"Oh alright." Jason said upset!

I looked back to Candace who seemed to be mad that we were leaving and then said something terrible.

"Oh well if you're leaving now, can you maybe give us a ride. Our parents are out shopping and they dropped us off so could you?" she tried to pull a puppy dog pout but that made her look funny and more hideous then she already does.

"Sure." Jason said happily not bothering to look at Nate or me.

So we all went to the car and now Hilary chose to start talking and practically clung herself onto Nate. It was actually a little funny to see some justice come out of this. Good old karma.

**Mitchie`s POV**

_Dear Diary,_

_About two hours ago, I met Shane Gray. Yes, the Shane gray of Connect three and now he's Shane gray who lives next door! I mean, I know I say that some of their songs are too ugh. But some are ok especially the earlier ones but he seemed pretty nice and nothing like I thought he would be. And it was weird, when I mentioned Candace and Hilary were out, he seemed relieved? I thought he would adore their looks or something but maybe he is deeper than that. Who knows, he seems full of surprises! But, off that topic. I wrote two new songs in the past two day! One is called "open" and the other is called "Forget" _**(A/N Pretend that it isn't a song about a guy and that it was written to her mom like as if she had given up on her dad and their marriage and their old family, if it confuses you ask and I'll explain better)**_ Their kind of sad songs but their my only way to tell my real feelings!_

_Well, I only have one day to myself and I'm not going to write in it the whole time so bye._

_Xoxo,_

_Mitchie_

I danced around a bit, ate some more frozen yogurt that was in my room and even out away the kitchen utensils for my mom and then I went back upstairs and unpacked two boxes of mine. I went back downstairs a little while later only two find Candace and Hilary standing in the front hallway.

"What are you doing back so soon?!" I asked disappointedly.

Authors Note: okay so sorry for the long wait. I had the beginning of this chapter written like, last week and just forgot about it. I started this new holiday theme thing, my first one is called "My favorite Holiday!" and it should be out by tomorrow, so check that out! I`m also going to try and get another quick chapter of "Can't have you" out sometime tomorrow and then I`m also trying to write a High School Musical story so I might post that tomorrow! So check those out, but they will only be short chapters and please bear with me.

Xoxo,

Laura


	7. Good Different

_**Do you know what it's like?**_

_**Part 7**_

**Author's Note: OMGSH! I am so happy to be back and writing! I haven't written in months and I am so happy to be able to now. Thank you to all the reviews in reply to my authors note from a few days ago. And there was one suggestion about how I could write my chapters beforehand on paper and that's a good Idea I just don't like writing if I don't have to but maybe I should start doing that. Anyway, here is the chapter I'm typing for a second time. I remember really liking the original so hopefully I'll be able to remember it for this. Sorry for the long authors note and please enjoy.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything.**

* * *

**Chapter 7:**

**Good Different**

_**Mitchie's POV**_

"_What are you doing back so soon?" I asked disappointed._

"You guys are supposed to be out all day."

"Check that tone at the door please and chill, we just caught a ride with the guys back. But we're going back to the mall once the guys are inside. We're taking the Porsche so tell mom and dad when they get back." She stated.

"Wait, s let me get this straight, you were at the mall, ran into Shane, Nate and Jason, and told them you were ready to go home, just so you could ride home with them? Wow, desperate much?" I muttered the last part.

"Ugh, you're calling us desperate? As if, look in the mirror for once would ya, maybe you shouldn't though you might break it." She snickered.

She grabbed the keys to the car from the corner table and just as she touched the doorknob she turned around with a skeptical look towards me. "Hold on, how did you know that Connect Three were our next door neighbors?" she wondered while glaring at me.

"Shane forgot his jacket here last night and he came to get it this morning. We talked for a few minutes but then he had to go." I explained while watching her expression turn something I couldn't decipher. Jealously? Not likely. Disbelieving? Maybe. Whatever it is, I'm sure I'll find out eventually.

Her expression changed as soon as it came and then as she turned back around she said, "More like wanted to go." And with that, she and Hilary walked down the front steps, got into the car and drove off.

I sighed and turned to go put away the frozen yogurt I had in my hands and went to look out the back window in the kitchen. Realizing that I hadn't gone on the full tour of the house yet. I surveyed the backyard first since it was right in front of me.

We had a more than decent sized pool with a pool house to go with it. A beautiful garden up against the wall that my mom would be kept busy tending to once we were settled. We had a big yard around the rectangular pool and a small terrace leading up to the master bedroom's balcony.

I went back inside through the kitchen and out into the hallway. Turning to my left I saw the entrance to what I assumed to be the family room, I walked in and saw many different sized boxes spread out among the room. It was big but not too big. The walls were light beige and the fireplace had been painted a lovely dark brown to go with the walls. Looking around, I saw a box labeled "family pictures"; I walked over and picked up the first one. It was of the small ceremony that my mom and mark had had. It was just me, my mom, mark, Hilary and Candace. Everybody had a big, bright smile on their face except me. I had a small smile that anybody who knew me could tell it was fake.

I put it down and walked out of the room.

I continued to explore all parts of house for the next half hour and decided to get out of the house. I slipped off my slippers and put on my red converse.

As soon as I had locked up after myself, I began walking down the street towards the unknown. After a few minutes, I found myself walking towards what looked to be a park. I crossed the street and continued walking on the path.

I saw little kids playing with their friends and siblings. I saw couples walking hand-in-hand and I even spotted two girls who looked about my age feeding the ducks in the small lake, laughing and having a good time. I wish I were back with my friends right now. Not we would be having that much fun, they're always so cautious around me, like I'm going to break any second. They don't know what to say to me or how to make me feel better, which is weird, because isn't that what friends are supposed to help with? Knowing how to cheer you up and keep your mind off things when you need it most? Whatever, we may not have that kind of friendship, but they were there for me, just not as much as I could've used during those months, even now.

I spotted an ice cream cart near by and walked up to the vender. "Hi, can I have a Haagen-Dazs ice cream bar please?"

"Sure thing, that will be $2:00 please." The old man said kindly. I reached for my back pocket when I remember I was in my sweats, and didn't have any money.

"Uh oh." I said. "Ugh, I'm so stupid, I forgot my wallet at home, thanks anyway-"I stopped when I saw a arm reach out from beside me and give the man two dollars. I turned to the girl next to me, who I recognized as one of the two feeding the ducks, and she smiled. "Thanks. And I promise, I'll pay you back." I thanked her.

"Don't sweat it, I can live without two bucks." She laughed and I joined in.

"Hey, me and my friend are just hanging out. Do you want to join us?" she asked kindly.

"Sure, if you don't mind."

"Not at all. Besides, we need someone new to hang with." She smiled and led me over to where her friend was.

As we got closer, the other girl turned around to face us and I saw that she was pretty. She had the same color hair as me but she wore it wavy and it was shorter. She stood up and came so she was just a foot away.

"Hey." She said simply.

"Hi. I'm Mitchie."

"Oh, sorry, I forgot to introduce myself before, I'm Caitlyn and this is my best friend Meghan." Caitlyn explained.

"It's nice to meet you both." I said politely.

"Oh please, the pleasure is all ours." Meghan smiled and grabbed my hand to pull me down beside her in the grass. We stayed there talking and getting to know each other for another hour and in that time I had discovered Caitlyn's love of music that matches mine except she's more into the producing type stuff, while Meghan is a little outgoing and crazy but they're both awesome. After an hour, I decided I should probably be heading home.

"Thanks for letting me hang out with you guys, it was fun, and I had a great time."

"We have to do it again, its nice talking to someone sane for more than five minutes." She joked.

"Hey." Exclaimed Meghan and then while they got into a pretend fight, I just laughed and went on my way. But before I was fully out of hearing range, I heard Meghan calling me back.

"Wait Mitchie!" I turned in time to see the two girls running towards me. "What's up?" I asked.

"We have tickets for tonight's football game at NYU and we have an extra one, do you want to come? I know its short notice the games are always so much fun." She tried to persuade me.

"Sure, I have to check with my mom but I'm pretty sure I can come." I responded.

"Great, Here's my cell number and call me after you check with your mom and then you can tell me your address and we'll come pick you up around 7:00 ish." Caitlyn said while writing her number on my arm.

After our second goodbyes, I finally left. I got home in 20 minutes, only getting lost once. I walked back up to my room and laid down on my bed. After a few minutes of resting my eyes I finally realized that music was playing from what sounded to be like outside my balcony. I walked over to unlock the door.

* * *

**Shane's POV**

After putting everything we had bought away and having some lunch I was out on my balcony playing around with my guitar. I had a melody in my head but I couldn't think of any lyrics. I had no inspiration and I only had a little bit of music so far. I was in my own little world of my music until I heard someone unlocking the door on the balcony across from mine.

I prayed that it was only Connie and Mark and not one of _them_. I realized that my guitar was still on the chair so I quickly brought it down to me just as the person opened the door.

With my bad coordination though, I managed to lightly but loudly bang the base of the guitar my knee. I gulped hoping they hadn't heard that but luck wasn't on my side.

"I can hear you, you know." The person said. But it wasn't the high perky voices of Candace or Hilary's voice. I recognized it as Mitchie's.

I stood up slowly, hoping I didn't seem that pathetic."Hey." I tried to sound as though nothing was out of the ordinary.

"Hi." She said looking at me weird.

"Why were you on the ground?" she asked me.

Quickly struggling to find an excuse I came up with one that I thought wasn't that bad. "Oh, I dropped my guitar. Pick. My guitar pick and then my guitar fell down after I got up." I added lamely after seeing the confused look on her face.

"Right." She said unconvinced.

"So what was the big emergency this morning?" She asked and I quickly covered up the look of confusion on my face as I realized what she was talking about. Jason's plan.

"Oh, uh, yeah, there was an accident involving one of Nate's guitars and Jason was afraid to be alone with him because he was the one who broke it and he thought Nate would kill him. But all is well now." It wasn't really a lie, that did happen once.

Luckily, she seemed to believe it and laughed a little. That's when we heard "the Great Escape" ring tone coming from inside her house.

"Well, I better get that. Nice song by the way." she smiled and left.

I learned a couple things today. First, I may actually not mind spending time next door. Second, Tell Jason when you want an excuse to get out of somewhere. And third, Mitchie was different from her sisters. Good different.

* * *

**Author's Note: Omgsh! I am so happy to be writing again, but I am so tired but I wouldn't let myself go to bed until I finished this so here it is. I find it kind of close to what I had previously written and I love the ending and I hope you liked the chapter. I went back to look at a few of my stories yesterday and I don't really like my writing technique so I'm going to try and be a little more detailed and such form now on and tried that a little on this chapter. Anyway, thank you all for staying with me for this story and for those of you reading "Can't Have You" I will try to update that sometime this weekend.**

**Xoxo,**

**Laura**

Oh, and I got a Pm a while back from mmg1195 (I'm pretty sure it was) anyway, Meghan, asking if she could have a part in my story so here it is and I hope your okay with what I wrote! Thanks for wanting to be apart of this story


	8. Game Night

**Do You Know What It's Like**

_Part 8_

Disclaimer: I do not own Camp rock characters or anything Disney. I also do not own "Five minutes To Midnight". Or Grey's Anatomy.

* * *

_**Chapter 8:**_

_**Game Night**_

_**Mitchie's POV**_

I shut the door behind me as I walked back into my room and grabbed my phone off my bed.

_: P Jack: P_ Seeing it was my brother, I answered immediately.

"Hey."

"Hi little sis. How are you today?" he asked me cheery. "I'm fine; I just came back from the park actually. I met two girls there. Hey, speaking of which, do you ever go to any of the football games at your school?"

"Yeah, sometimes with a couple of the guys. Why?" He asked me confused.

"Well, the girls I met have an extra ticket and they invited me. They said they go every once and a while and that it was really fun. But I don't know anything about football so I don't think it will be that fun."

"Relax, they probably don't know much either. A lot of high school kids come up for the older girls and guys. And besides, you can always learn while watching the game."

"Right. Are you going to be there tonight?" I asked with hope. I always felt more comfortable in a crowd with Jack. He was the life of the party.

"No, not tonight kiddo. I have a lot of schoolwork to catch up on. But we should hang out sometime this week. Maybe catch a movie or something."

"Yeah sure, that'd be great" I said trying to think that I could get along with out my brother. I don't know why I feel like I need him with me so much. I never felt like this before, I never needed him to always be there with me. I can do this on my own. So why am I so worried about tonight? Caitlyn and Meghan seem nice and funny; I got along with them great, maybe even better than I got along with some of my friends back home.

"Mitchie? Mitchie? You still there?"

"Oh yeah, sorry I spaced out there for a second." I explained.

"Right, you still do that a lot." He laughed. "Well, listen, I would love to stay and chat but I just wanted to check up and see how your settling, and now I have to go get started on a paper for class."

"Okay, thanks for calling."

"Sure thing, Mitchie. I love you." He said

"Love you too, bye" I said and hung up the phone.

I decided that I should get an outfit ready for tonight. I plugged my ipod into my dock and put on "Five minutes to midnight". I stepped into my small walk-in closet, and thought about what to wear to a football game. It definitely wouldn't be formal or semi formal. Casual probably. Maybe capris and a tank top? Yeah I think that would work.

I pulled my blue jean capris off the hanger and turned around to where I kept my tanks. I chose my favorite dark green racer back tank top.

I walked back out to put the clothes on my bed when I heard my stomach grumbling. I figured I should probably eat something other than ice cream today so I walked downstairs to make myself a Pb&j sandwich.

I took my sandwich and juice box back into my room and put in another disk of Grey's Anatomy. After the hour of Dark and twisty-ness, I went back downstairs to put my plate away. I decided to call Caitlyn, I hadn't asked my mom yet, but she would probably let me go out. Hilary and Candace get to go out whenever they please.

I got the little slip of paper with her number on it and dialed. After two rings, she picked up.

"Speak."

I laughed. "Hey, it's Mitchie."

"Oh, hi Mitchie, so can you come?" she asked anxiously.

"Yup." I answered.

"Great, just give me your address and I'll come get you tonight at quarter to seven." I gave her my address and we talked for a little while longer. I hung up and glanced at the clock on my phone. _3:43 pm_

I let out a light sigh realizing I only had one or two hours left to myself, assuming that they would come home for dinner.

I was completely out of things to do. I didn't want to watch another episode because I could do that anytime. I don't want to start getting ready yet, because it wouldn't take long and I don't have to go until after 6:30. I don't want to unpack; that's just plain boring. I finally settled on going out back and lounging by the pool. I quickly changed out of my sweats and into my bathing suit and cover up.

I stepped out into the sun and sat down at the edge of the pool with my feet in the water. I started singing the melody to the song I had written this morning in my head.

Humming along and staring out into the blue water of the pool. I wasn't aware of my surroundings, until I felt someone tap my shoulder and I jumped up and turned around to face whoever it was.

My heart rate calmed down when I saw who it was.

"I'm sorry I didn't mean to scare you, I called out but I guess you didn't hear me." Nate explained to me looking a little amused at my outburst and kind of worried.

"It's okay. Sorry, I was distracted."

"Yeah, I'm like that too sometimes." He laughed, all the worry in his eyes disappearing. "I'm Nate. I live next door." He said, pointing over his shoulder to the house behind him.

"I know, I met your brother, Shane, already. I'm Mitchie, it's nice to meet you." I said, shaking the hand he had held out.

"Umm, I don't mean to bother you but do you happen to have any flour we could borrow, just a cup? I know you haven't unpacked yet, but Jason wants to make cookies for our family whose coming to visit tonight unexpectedly and we're out of flour." He finished explaining.

"Ramblings a trait in your family isn't it?" I laughed. "I unpacked the flour this morning, come on in, I'll get it for you.

He followed me back into the house and I went straight to the pantry to grab the bag of flour I had put in there earlier.

I took it out and gave it to him. "Thanks, I'll bring it back when we're finished."

"Okay. Take your time."

"Thanks. I better go and get this to Jason. It was nice meeting you Mitchie." He smiled and headed back over to the door.

"You too." I said following him back out the door to resume my spot near the pool.

"See you later." He said as he opened the gate and stepped out.

I had my feet in the water for 20 more minutes then moved to the lounge chair that was there from the people who used to live here. Thirty minutes later I got up and changed back into my sweats. It's now 5:00 and I figure Mom and Mark would be getting home soon so I would take a quick shower before before I start to get ready.

I walked into my bathroom and turned the water on. I took off my clothes and climbed in, did my normal routine of shampooing and all that and stepped out. I looked at the little digital clock in the corner of the washroom. I spent a good 40 minutes in there. I put on my undergarments and put my robe over top. Mom and Mark should be home by now so I went to tell them where I would be going tonight.

As I reached the bottom of the staircase, I saw them bringing in what looked like boxes of paint and wallpaper and laughing at something one of them said.

They looked up when the stair creaked as I got off the last step. "Hi honey, we got a lot of things. And some new furniture that's being delivered tomorrow. Did you have a good day?" She said while putting the box she had carried in down against the wall.

"Yeah. Actually I went for a little walk in the park and met these two girls. Caitlyn and Meghan, and they're going to a football game tonight at NYU and they asked me to come. And I knew you'd be fine with it, so Caitlyn's coming to pick me up a little before seven."

They both looked at me as I finished with a look I knew wasn't good.

"What?" I said exasperated.

"Mitchie, sweetie. I don't know if that's such a good idea." My mom said looking at me with a sympathetic expression.

"Your mothers right, a collage football game with two girls you just met today. With hundreds of older kids who could be drinking? That alone says no good. I think it would be wise if you just stay in tonight sweetie." He said with a small smile.

I looked at them both, angrily.

"What's the difference of me going out with two nice girls that I just met than Candace and Hilary going out to _parties _with _guys_ they just met? You trust them more than you trust me. Seriously? Why do they get to go out and I don't? That's so unfair. I can't believe you two."

"Michelle, you will not take that tone with us. The answer is no and that's final. Now go to your room if you're going to have a fit. Adios mia." My mother scolded me and I stomped up to my bedroom.

I can't believe this. I have as much right, maybe even more, to go out and have fun with my friends as Candace and Hilary do.

An idea suddenly came to mind. I am going to that game. I quickly called Caitlyn and told her to meet me at the end of my street instead.

I changed into my outfit for tonight and dried my hair and left it naturally curly. I applied a light layer of neutral make up and some lip gloss. When I looked back at the clock, it was 6:28. Caitlyn would be here at 6:45. I had 17 minutes to tell my parents, get out and walk down the street. Oh crap.

Just as I was thinking how I could bring up staying in my room all night so they wouldn't check on me, my mom called me for dinner.

I opened my door slightly and yelled down to her. "I already ate."

"Mitchie, listen you can hang out with your friends some other time." She tried to reason.

"Who cares anymore, I'm going to bed." And with that I slammed my door shut. _15 minutes_

I walked over to my bed and arranged the pillows under the covers to look like somebody was sleeping under them. I admired my work, which I thought was quite well done, for a few seconds and then walked over to my balcony door.

I slipped outside, making sure that I could still get in later and looked below me. It wasn't that far down. And with the terrace against the side, it should make it easier. Okay. I looked quickly at my watch. _13 minutes_

I lifted my left leg first over the railing which went up to just about my hip. As soon as I had secured my foot on the ledge, I gripped the railing and brought my other leg over.

Once I was on the other side, I let my right leg search for one of the wholes in the terrace. I found it and slowly descended down. I got to the ground with little problems. It was easier than I thought it would be but still no picnic.

I was careful going around my house and as soon as I was past I broke into a jog. Realizing that I still had 8 minutes to get down the street which wasn't that far, I slowed to walk. I got there just as car lights cam around the corner from two streets away.

They pulled up to the curb and I climbed into the back with Meghan.

We exchanged hellos and Caitlyn introduced me to the driver. "Mitchie, this is my cousin Riley. Riley, this is my new friend Mitchie."

He turned to look at me with a smile and said hey then turned back around and drove off. On the way there, I noticed all three of them had jerseys on. I'm not sure if they were for the teams playing tonight or not but Riley's looked like it might be.

When we got to the stadium, it was packed. Riley, dropped us off at the front and said he'd find a parking spot. He also told Caitlyn to call him and tell him where we were when the game finished.

We showed the guy our tickets and went to our seats. The game started with in the 10 minutes after we sat down.

"Oh Mitchie, you'll need this. It really gets you into the spirit!" Caitlyn said in an exciting tone while reaching down into her bag. She pulled out a pink jersey with the number 33 on it. "I have tons at home so you can keep this one and wear it to all the games if you want." She smiled as I took it and put it on over my tank top. "Thanks" I smiled.

"So, do you know about football or do you guys just come here to hang out?" I asked as I watched the starting kick-off.

"Well, the first time Riley invited us down to one, we came for the guys but when we got here we got into the game and met some really nice people. So now we come to do both hang and watch the game." She explained. I nodded and she spoke again.

"Do you know anything about football?" I shook my head in response. "It's pretty easy to understand once you know all the rules." She replied.

As we watched the game, Caitlyn kept explaining to me everything that was happening and why while Meghan was talking with a girl she met at a game a few weeks ago. By the middle of the second half I could tell when to stand up and cheer because of the goal we just got. We were having such a great time and as soon as the game was over we were tired from screaming at the top of our lungs and doing a victory dance. The score was 27- 23.

Meghan suggested that it'd be best to wait while most of the people left so we wouldn't get caught in the crowd.

As soon as most of the people around us had cleared out, we got up and started to head back to the parking lot. I looked at my watch and it was now a little after nine. Not too late. I just hope no one came to check up on me.

We were out on the sidewalk and Caitlyn called Riley to tell him where we were. He came around with the car a few minutes later. We hopped in and started talking about the game.

We dropped off Meghan first since she was the farthest. She made sure to get my number and I got hers and then we were off again.

"You can just drop me off at the corner where you picked me up please."

"Oh no, it's late at night, we're not letting you walk half a block to your house in the dark. We'll drop you off at the house next door." Caitlyn said stubbornly. "I still don't get why we picked you on the corner."

I saw Riley smirk at me in the rearview mirror. "You snuck out, didn't you?" he asked knowingly. Caitlyn turned to face me in her seat with an astounding look on her face.

"Did you?" she asked me.

I looked down to hide my blushing cheeks. "Mitchie, I don't want your parents thinking I'm a bad influence. Then they won't let you hang out with me." She said worried.

"Relax, Caitlyn, they won't find out. I climbed down my balcony and they won't check up on me." I explained calmly.

"Good luck with that." Said Riley.

Soon enough we were right in front of the Gray's house. I stepped out and thanked Riley for the ride and Caitlyn for the game. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, just don't bring me down with you when you get caught." She said but then broke out into a smile. "I'll call you tomorrow." She said and then rolled up the window and I stood back watching the car drive off. I turned back to face my house and quietly walked over to the side.

I was at my terrace and began to climb. It was a little harder going up but I got to the top. I pulled myself over the railing. I sighed and smiled at a job well done.

"Why did you climb up the side of your balcony?" A little boys voice asked me and I turned to face him. He looked to be about eight or nine.

"Uh, well I thought it would be fun?" I said, even though it came out as more of a question.

"Cool. Can I try?" he asked excitedly. "No!" I rushed to say. "It's very dangerous for little kids." I explained.

"Oh." He said dejected.

"Sorry." I said feeling bad that I made him sad.

"It's okay." He perked up immediately and I smiled. "My names Frankie. Who are you?" he asked kindly.

"I'm Mitchie. You must be Shane, Nate and Jason's brother, right?" He nodded his head cutely. "You know my brothers?" he asked me.

"Just Shane and Nate. I haven't met Jason yet." I responded.

"Oh well he's pretty cool too. He's my favorite brother today." Said Frankie. I laughed at what he had said.

"Well, it was nice meeting you Frankie, but I better head inside." I smiled at him once last time to see him wave goodbye and give a quick "goodnight".

I walked inside my room and slipped off my jersey and threw it on my bed, I got some pajamas out of my closet and went to change in the washroom. I came out and was shocked to see the desk lamp on my night stand on and Candace sitting on my bed holding my jersey.

"What do you think you're doing in _my _room?" I asked coldly.

"How do you think Mom and Dad would react if they find out you deliberately disobeyed them and snuck out when they strictly told you not to?" She asked with a conniving smirk.

"Fine, goe tell them, what do I care. I already went out." I was not going to let her have something on me.

"Oh don't worry, I won't tell." She got up and headed towards my door dropping the jersey to the floor. "This time." And with that she left.

I sighed, staring at my closed door for a minute and grabbed my jersey from the ground.

_Dear Diary,_

_I know I already wrote in here today, but a lot has happened in the past few hours! First, I made two new friends when I went for a walk down at the park. Caitlyn and Meghan, they're both great. I think we could be really great friends; they even invited me to come to a football game with them at NYU tonight with them. It was so great, I learned all about football, now I'm a fanatic. But more importantly, I had to sneak out to go. Mom and Mark wouldn't let me, claiming "a football game with a bunch of collage students spells bad news". Ugh. Meanwhile Hilary and Candace get to go do whatever they please whenever. I can't believe my own mother is treating me like this. We use to have a great relationship, she trusted me. Not anymore, not since dad and Mark happened…_

_On a happier note; I met another Gray today. Nate. He came over asking to borrow flour to bake cookies for his little brother, who I also met and he's adorable._

_I'm beat so I'm going to go to bed._

_Xoxo,_

_Mitchie_

* * *

**Author's Note:**** Okay this is the longest chapter I have ever written (16 pages). I am very proud! I think I might have gone on with some not important maybe boring things so sorry if I did but yeah… anyways, I hope you like it. Yes now she has met three out of the four Gray brothers! So I will try to update sometime next weekend. Right after I update "Can't Have you". Thanks to everybody. Oh and , I actually edited this chapter! I haven't done that for a while… **

**Links to outfits in my profile.**

"**Five Minutes to Midnight" – Boys Like Girls**

**Xoxo,**

**Laura**


	9. A Day with Jack

**I do not own anything.**

**A/N: So sorry I wouldn't let myself update this till I had Can't Have You done. And I'm so sorry, I do this a lot, I write something one way then forget what I put and change the facts. Thanks to 0TwistedAngel0 for pointing this out; in this story Connect three are brothers. I know they weren't before but I changed it to fit. So sorry for confusing you guys. Thanks to everyone for reviewing, alerting… etc.**

* * *

I woke up the next morning early. Too early for my liking. I was like a zombie walking to my bathroom to shower. I let the warm water wake me up and as soon as I was finished, stepped out and got dressed. I figured, I will finish unpacking today and call Sierra later on to tell her everything. I haven't spoken to her in forever.

I grabbed one of my boxes stacked against the wall near my door labeled photo frames. I'm big on having pictures up all around my room. Family, friends anything that's pretty or funny, I will put it on my wall. I ripped the tape securing the box closed off and pulled out the first couple of frames. They were pictures of me and my parents from when I was younger. Looking at all our happy faces, I felt the tears start to build up in my eyes. Not wanting to cry first thing in the morning, I put them aside and grabbed the next few. More family pictures. Only this time, it was the whole relative family. All from family get togethers at Christmas and Easter dinners and for birthday parties. I put them aside with the others and looked down at the new pictures before me. They were of me and a few of my friends. One in a hot pink frame with "Cuties" at the top in bubble letters was a photo of us at the Halloween. We had the most outrageous costumes. The next one was us at the amusement park near we used to live. It was one of those ones that they took when you were plummeting towards the ground on a roller coaster. The third one was my favorite. It was one night almost two years ago when we all got dressed up in our dresses from semi formal and had every assecary we owned on and went out to dinner. We were all sitting at the table laughing our heads off while the waiter took our picture. We looked completely ridicously. But I would do it all over again.

Looking at all my friends made me miss them even more. I couldn't wait till later to call Sierra.

I grabbed my cell and she picked up on the 5th ring. "Sierra here." She greeted laughing.

"Hey Se!" I said trying to brush away the tears that I didn't know had fallen. "Mitchie! Oh my gosh. How are you? How's New York? Ugh, are Candace and Hilary still there?" She asked in a disgusted tone.

I laughed a little." I'm okay. And New York is... New York. It's interesting, I've met some new people, and they're nice. And yes, it's kind of hard to get rid of them. Considering our situation, you know the whole their dad is married to my mom thing." I joked to my old friend.

"Ha ha, ever the wise cracker aren't you?"" We laughed. I started telling her all about Caitlyn and Meghan and the house and everything thing I could think of. I was debating on telling her about Connect Three living right next door when she brought it up." So, any cute guys?" She giggled. I chose to have some fun with her. "Um, ya actually. Three. They're tall, gorgeous. Dark hair. One's our age; the other is a year old and than the other is two years older." If I kept giving hints like these, I knew she would get the clues together eventually, she was a huge connect three fanatic. "They're brothers…" I trailed off wondering how close she was. "Mitch, it sounds like your describing connect three." She laughed at the preposterous thought.

"Oh ya well come to think of it they are rich. And in a band. And they're names are Nate, Shane and Jason." I smiled when I heard her gasp in recognition.

"Mitchie? If you're joking, it's really really mean!" she warned.

"No I'm not joking. They live right next door." I explained and pulled the phone away from my ear as she started screaming in joy.

"Oh my gosh. This is… this is... this is so awesome. Have you met them? Are they as cute in person as they are on TV?" She started uncontrollably questioning. I laughed and for the next hour and a half, on the phone answering her weird questions.

After talking to Sierra, I started putting up the pictures all around my room and unpacking more boxes. By 1:30 I had more than half of my boxes done. I had unpacked most of my clothes; I just had my formal stuff still packed away. I also unpacked my posters and everything to go on my desk and dressers. It was all coming together well. I liked how my new room was turning out, just my style.

I stood admiring my room for a little when I heard something taping against my window. Curious, I walked around my bed to my balcony door. Opening it cautiously, I peered out and saw a little head of brown hair. I opened the door wider and stepped out into the warm air.

I saw Frankie smiling up at me. "Hi Mitchie!" He said happily while setting down the rest of the pebbles he was planning on throwing at my window.

"Hey Frankie." I said leaning against the side of the balcony.

"What are you doing?" He asked me sitting on one of the chairs placed there. "Well, I was unpacking but then I heard this mysterious noise coming from outside. Do you know what that was?" I asked coyly. He looked down with a guilty expression and I laughed a little. "It's okay, I was mostly done anyway. Did you need something?" I asked.

"I'm bored." He stated plainly.

"Where are your brothers?" I asked and was responded to with a shrug.

"Well do you want to hang out?" I suggested and he nodded eagerly. "What do you want to do?" I asked.

"Want to play video games?" He replied enthusiastically. I laughed and nodded. "Cool. Meet me at the front door and I'll let you in." He ran inside and I went downstairs.

"Mitchie, where are going?" Asked Mark while coming out of the Kitchen. "Out.' I answered shortly.

"Where?" He replied coming to stand in front of me. "Next door." I answered just wanting to get out of here. He accepted that answer and moved out of my way. "Before you go I just wanted to say that what your mom and I did last night, not letting you go out, was just because we love you." I almost gagged at that sentence. Not trusting my will power I left fast. I didn't know if I can hold back any longer. I feel like I'm going to explode with my real feelings about everything.

I ran next door and saw Frankie waiting already with the door open. He saw me and motioned for me to come quickly. Speed walking, I went up the steps and into the house.

"Come on, we can play in Jason's room." He said grabbing my hand and pulling me up the stairs. Being dragged into the room, Frankie let go of my hand and plopped down on the floor in front of the TV. I looked around and saw a mostly clean room beside a few random pieces of clothes on the floor. Turning behind me I saw his guitars. I gaped at the ones hanging on the wall and then the ones resting in their stands. _Wow, I would kill for a collection like that._

"You coming?" I heard Frankie ask me from where he was sitting.

"Ya," I answered turning back around and taking a seat on the floor next to him. "What are we playing?" I asked.

"Umm, Super Mario Smash Brothers?" he suggested and I nodded.

* * *

Being beat 13 times in a row by a second grader really doesn't help your self confidence. As he was doing his victory dance, I challenged him to another game. This time, I was concentrated and focused. Five minutes later, after a battle to match a world war, I won. Barely. Happy, I stood up and did my own victory dance in front of Frankie watching him playfully scowl at me. His scowl soon turned into a smile though and when I turned around to see what was so funny, thinking it was just my dance, I came face to face with Jason who himself was holding in laughter.

Embarrassed, I immediately stopped my happy dance and tucked a piece of hair behind my ear looking down.

"Hello." He said chuckling. "I liked your dance."

"Thanks… I was just playing with Frankie and then he beat me 13 times and then I finally beat him so I was happy and-"I rushed to explain my ridiculous actions but he cut me off.

"No it's cool I totally understand. I have my own happy dance too." He then showed me his dance which involved the electric slide and parts of the chicken dance which had me burst out laughing.

Once he stopped, I started the introductions. "Hi I'm Mitchie. I live next door." I said pointing in the direction of my house.

"Cool, I'm Jason. I live here." I smiled at him, trying to determine if that was a joke or not. The media does say he's not the brightest person out there. But I couldn't help but get a good vibe from him anyway.

"Do you mind if I join you guys? I play some mean smash brothers." He then looked up in confusion. "Does that make any sense?"

"I don't know." We started playing again and were having a blast, laughing and getting beat by both Jason and Frankie, multiply times, we were setting up for another round when we got interrupted.

"Frankie! Did you go in my room again?" Complained Shane while stepping into the room. He came to a halt as soon as he saw me. "Mitchie?"

"Hey." I turned my head to face him and smiled slightly.

"Hi."

"Hey Shane. We were just playing some super smash brothers! Want to play?" Asked Jason kindly.

"Sure." He answered and moved to sit down with us on the floor. I looked over at Frankie and saw him grin in success as Shane forgot about Frankie being in his room. I laughed lightly and waited while Shane put the settings on four player.

"Wait, wait!! I'm going to win! Oh!" Shane said as he smashed my player into oblivion. I scoffed in defeat. "This game is rigged."I stated.

"Oh come one, just because you can't win doesn't mean you're bad. It just means you're not as good as the rest of us. And just because Frankie isn't that good either and he still beat you by a whole lot before doesn't mean you have no chance." Jason tried to lighten me up with an insult and in result I took the pillow I was leaning against and chucked it at him.

I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket so while Shane, Jason and Frankie had a mini pillow fight, I opened my new text.

_Hello lil' sister!_

_I'm free tomorrow so I thought you might like to hang out._

_I don't know, see a movie, go out to lunch. Anything you want. Hey I can even take you on a tour of New York City! Txt me back._

_Love you, Jack_

I smiled at the text and was about to quickly reply when my cell started ringing. "Jessie's Girl" started playing and I answered it. Jason, Frankie and Shane stopped fighting when they saw I was on the phone.

"Hello?"

"_Mitchie. Can you come back home pleas, I need to talk to you."_

"Ya sure I guess, I'll be right there."

I hung up and turned sadly to the guys. "Sorry, that was my mom, I need to get back." I said.

"Okay. We have to hang out again sometime soon though, Kay?" Jason stated looking at me for reassurance.

"Defiantly." I smiled. "Thanks for having me over." I looked at the three of them and made my way downstairs. From there, I could here someone say something and the pillow fight start again.

I was reaching the end of the stairs when Nate came out from the side. I slammed into the wall from the shock, holding my hand against my chest trying to control my breathing. "Holy mackerel Nate. You scared me." I said loosening up from my frightened position.

"Man, you are one easy girl to scare. That's twice now." He smirked and I gave him a childish reply; I stuck my tongue out at him.

"Well, beware, I will get revenge." I warned him and he just laughed.

"Were you with my brothers?" He asked and I nodded.

"Yeah, and I would love to stay and chat but I have to get home." I smiled at him and he walked me out the front door. "See ya." He said as I was walking down the pathway.

"Bye." I called back.

Smiling a little as I walked through my front door I went into the living room trying to find my mom.

Instead I found Hilary and Candace watching "the simple life". I scoffed and went to turn around when I heard, "Daddy surprised her and took her out to dinner." I faced her and replied. "In the two minutes it took me to get over here?" She shrugged in response.

_Great._ I sighed angrily. I left for nothing.

"Whatever." I walked up to my room. I grabbed my song book and sat down on my bed. Thinking about Candace and Hilary I got inspired. Surprisingly.

* * *

I woke up to my head dug underneath the pillow and my arms stretched above my head. Lazily, I got up to shower and get ready for the day. I dressed casual, not knowing what the day's events were. What would a tour of New York include? Especially a tour with my brother… This will be interesting.

I heard my cell vibrating on top of my dresser. I ran to get it and opened the message.

_Hey_

_I'll be there in 10_

_Be ready_

_J_

_Shoot._ I rushed to put my things into my purse and pick out shoes. Once ready, I ran downstairs and ran into Mark.

"Oh, where are you going today?" He said laughing.

"I'm hanging out with Jack. He's showing me around. Unless, that's too dangerous. You know, who knows if I can even trust my own brother." I said bitterly throwing the other night back in his face. He gave me a disapproving look and before he could say anything there was a knock on the door.

Looking through the window I saw Jack. "I got to go. I'll be home later." I said rushing out the door.

"Hey." I said as we climbed into the car.

"Hi. Mark giving you trouble?" He said glancing at me as he backed out of the driveway.

"Nah, nothing I can't handle." I said sulkily.

He smiled apologetically over at me and I looked away; I didn't want pity, especially not from my own brother.

"Well, are you ready for the best day ever of brother/sister fun?" He asked me excitedly.

"What does that entail exactly?" I asked looking over at him.

"Well, first we're heading over to the campus so I can show you where I live and then lunch and then more sightseeing." He answered and I nodded in acceptance.

"Cool."

"So this is the rec room. People come here to hang out and stuff and there's a mini kitchen around the corner over there." He explained, pointing behind him.

So far, I had seen his dorm, met some of his friends, the cafeteria, the library, a few classes and ran into a few professors. I think this was the last stop before lunch. Good thing too, I'm starved.

"Okay, where do you want to eat?" He asked bringing me out of my thoughts.

"You live here. What do you suggest?" I asked as we began walking back to the car.

"Oh, I know this great little café a few streets away. We could go there." I nodded in agreement and we headed over to the place.

* * *

After lunch he took me all around. We saw the empire state building, where the twin towers used to be, Rockefeller centre and a lot of other places.

He drove me back home at around 7:30. I said goodbye and got out of the car and went inside.

"Mitchie! Where have you been?" My mom came screaming at me out of the living room.

"I tried your cell, no answer. What the heck were you thinking going off like that?" She looked at me for an explanation.

"What are you talking about? I told Mark that I was spending the day with Jack. My _brother_, _your son._ What you don't trust me?" I said outraged that she was overreacting.

"It does not matter who you were with. We gave you that phone for a reason. If you're not going to answer it then give it to me right now." She held out her hand waiting for me to hand the device over.

"What? Are you serious?" I asked.

"Right now Michelle." I reluctantly handed my cell over to her when I heard the use of my full name.

"Now get upstairs to your room young lady." I scoffed and headed to the stairs. Candace came waltzing in the hall and stopped when she saw the fumed look on my mom's face.

"Oh did you find out about her sneaking out last night?" She asked acting innocent and "Worried" knowing exactly what she was doing. I froze and slowly turned to look at her.

_That tramp._

* * *

**Author's Note: That's where I'm going to end it for now. I know these chapters are kind of boring but I hope to start getting more Smitchie action in and more stuff with her mom. **

**I just realized I have 76 reviews for this story! That's so awesome, it's the most reviews I have ever had for a story. THANK YOU! And I hope to continue writing a good enough story to get more!**

**Also, I am looking for a beta for "Can't Have You" ****so if any of you are interested and would like to beta it please tell me in a review or PM. I would like somebody who can help me with pointing out any little errors I could have missed, adding in some more detail when necessary and things like that, just an overall opinion and suggestions for the story. **

**On a final note; all reviews and new alerts are greatly appreciated. **

**Thank you all so much for reading this story!**

**Laura**


	10. Playing Nice

**I do not own anything.**

**A/N: THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH! 100 reviews, that is so awesome. I am so happy right now; thank you. This is the first time for any of my stories to reach 100 reviews. I just wanted to say thanks. Anyway, I got a haircut! I also just wanted to mention that because I love getting my haircut. Again, anyway, the last few days I have been deciding how I want to start this chapter and I like how I'm going to do it I think, I hope you do to.**

* * *

_Grounded. _I can't believe this. All because they wouldn't even let me go out and for "talking back". Candace must be drowning in joy right now. I can't believe this is how my life is now. If someone had told me three years ago that my Dad would die, my mom would remarry and I end up with two step-sisters and living next door to Connect Three, I would've laughed in there face and called them riciculous. But nope, this is it. _And it sucks._

* * *

_**Earlier**_

My mother's voice brought me out of glaring at Candace.

"Michelle Torres, what is she talking about?" My mother demanded.

"Oh no. I didn't just tell did I? I'm sorry Mitchie." Right now, she was as fake as her tan. Which by the way made her look like an oompa loompa. While my mother was pacing around rubbing her head, Candace shot me a condescending smile.

"Candace, will you please explain to me what you're talking about?" My mother asked calmly to her.

Candace returned to her little performance and responded to my mom. "Well, I was going in to talk to Mitchie last night, wondering if she wanted to come out with me and Hilary tomorrow and she wasn't there. I was about to leave but then she came in through the window. I'm sorry; I shouldn't have said anything, I should go." She said while ducking her head.

"Oh no sweetie, don't apologize, but please leave, I need to talk to Michelle." She said giving me a stern look.

As soon as Candace left our view, she got right into the lecture. "Who do you think you are? Going out alone, at night, let alone in a big new city. Do you realize what could have happened? That you could have been hurt." My mother screamed at me.

"I wasn't alone, I was with friends. And as for your first question, who do you think _you _are? You trust those tramps more than you trust me. What is that? How could you not trust me enough to know that I can think for myself to know what I can or cannot do. I am 16 years old, I think I'm smart enough to determine who is a friend or not. You wouldn't let me go to a football game with nice, sensible girls while you let _them_ go to collage _party_." I stopped to catch my breath to continue my rant but my mom beat me to it.

"Michelle Isabella Marie Torres. How dare you think you can talk to me like that or about your sisters like that; calling them "tramps". You, young girl have a lesson to learn and you will have time to think about what that is during the next two and a half weeks because you are grounded." My mom then did the thing that makes you really feel bad. The low and slow voice that makes even you feel disappointed in yourself. But that's not what I felt right now.

"You might want to readjust your attitude or else we're not going to be so easy on you next time." She warned. I scoffed and turned away but not before adding one last thing. "And you might want to think about ethics mom. Right and wrong." I turned away and walked up the stairs.

**

* * *

**

**Present**

I was starting to feel bad. I've never talked to my mom like that before. But she has no right to treat me any different from Candace or Hilary. _So why was she?_I hate this. I hate being mad at my mom and vice versa. I hate living with Mark and Candace and Hilary. I hate being so… not myself. I'm not like this; I'm a nice, caring, sweet girl who would never act like a jerk to someone, let alone her own mother. I've changed. And not in a good way.

**Shane's POV**

I went in to Jason's room today, expecting to get Frankie in trouble about touching my stuff but instead found, Frankie, Jason and Mitchie. Playing Jason's game cube. They invited me to play, and since I wanted to get to know Mitchie more, this was a good chance to spend time with her. So I stayed. And had a great time. She was so fun to hang around with. Smart, funny and pretty. I think I might like her. OK, well it's obvious I do like her, I can't stop thinking about her…

Should I ask her out? No, I've only known her for two days. That'd be weird and creepy. And who knows, maybe she's only pretending to be like this, maybe she's just like Candace and Hilary.

No, I knew that wasn't true. She was nothing like them. _Them._Great, the more time I spend with Mitchie, the more time I'll most likely have to spend with Candace and Hilary. Was she worth it?

**Mitchie's POV**

First full day of punishment. _This will be fun… not._ It's about 8 o'clock in the morning and I trudge downstairs for our "first family breakfast" as Mark called it when he woke me up. Still dressed in my pj's , I walked into the kitchen and see my mom by the stove cooking while Mark is making toast.

I guess they heard me enter and both looked up, though with far different expressions. Mark had a smile playing on his face when he saw me enter while my mom looked up with an unyielding look set on her face. It made that small voice in the back of my head stop saying _'Apologize and try to talk to her calmly.' _

She was the adult, she should be the one to put an end to this and stop being so immature first.

I sat down in one of the chairs near the window. It was a tense silence while I sat watching them continue to make breakfast. Minutes later, Hilary came pouncing in.

"Good morning sweetie. Where's your sister?" Mark asked her while kissing her on the cheek.

"Oh she's not feeling that well. She's skipping breakfast." She explained as she moved to sit down.

"Probably too hung over to even move." I whispered under my breath, but apparently loud enough that Hilary could hear seeing as she looked up to glare at me. I glared right back at her and we stayed like that until Mark came over and put a plate of freshly buttered toast between us. I grabbed two while Hilary took one and cut it in half, placing the other half back on the plate. A disgusted look came across my face. _Oh my god, they starve themselves._

"You know, one piece of toast won't blow you up like a balloon." I stated to her. Hey, technically, I was saving her from wasting away.

"Taken a look in the mirror lately." She scoffed.

Smirking at my angry expression, she took a small bite from her toast.

Mark and mom joined us then and we got started on putting together our plates.

"So what is everybody up to today?" Mark asked starting a conversation.

"Well, Candace and me were supposed to go to the next round of try outs for cheer but I guess I'll have to do that alone. And then I'll probably go shopping." Mark nodded taking in her plans while she explained them.

"Well, honey, I'm going to look at places for the project we discussed." She said to him, careful not to go into much detail as to what she was talking about. _What was she talking about? What project?_

He nodded again and turned his head to me. "What about you Mitchie? What are you doing today?" He asked while taking a bite of his scrambled eggs. I took a quick glance at my mom and saw her grim expression. I didn't have any plans for today, I figured I would call Caitlyn or Meaghan but I think my Mom has plans for me; as a part of my grounding. She opened her mouth to respond.

"Mitchie is going to stay here and help you unpack the rest of the house today. And then she's going to get to work on the flower beds out in the back afterwards." She answered, still looking at me.

I looked down at my food. _And maybe if I'm lucky, I'll get to eat too._ I smiled to myself at my sarcastic comment. _Thi_s_ is going to be a long two weeks..._

* * *

Lucky me. I'm sure there are people out there who wish they were me because I am just so darn lucky.

Sarcasm. One of my many character traits.

Mark and I have now been unpacking the main floor of the house for about three hours. And during the first hour, just before my mom left, she realized Candace would have to " rest and save her energy" in order to feel better faster; so she assigned me the peachy task of getting me whatever she "needs". In the past three hours, I have gotten called up 16 times. Yes, I counted.

If she calls me up one more time to get the remote from wherever she's thrown it, she's going to need a new nose job.

By now, we had fully unpacked the dining room and most of the furniture for the living room. But seeing as we still had to paint and redecorate, we could only unload the stuff we could put into the centre of the room when the time came. No photos or things to go on the walls yet.

I am now working on the laundry room. There's only three boxes. Just with things to spruce it up a bit and make it more homey. And a box filled with all the cleaning supplies, detergent, stain remover... things like that.

I used the knife I had to cut through the tape on the first box. I pulled out the "Keys" hanger and nailed it to the wall. This unpacking thing was actually helping me unleash my anger, especially when i use the hammer... _I might be going insane._

As I finished taking things out of the first box, I started singing quietly to myself.

_' So if I ever see you on the street,  
I'll pretend that I didn't see,  
and turn my face, no use in small talk anyways,  
cause I finally can see your eyes,  
then I'll have to say goodbye  
and that'll break my heart, so I won't even start.'_

I love that song. After my first boyfriend in grade 7 dumped me for a popular girl and I went home crying that day, my Dad saw and took me to Wakemoore; a few towns away and we went shopping and got ice cream. But on the way there, when my dad was trying to cheer me up wiht his dumb corny jokes, this song came on the radio and it in no way related to my situation, but for some reason it made me feel better. It's my number one shower song choice.

I was done the laundry room after only 20 minutes and walked into the kitchen. Mark is putting away the plates adn dishes in a cabinet already so I take the place mats laid out on the table piled with other kitchen accessories and put them in a cupboard close to the stove. I continued putting away the things on the kitchen table until it was all done. Mark just had to finish one more box but dismissed me to go check on Candace.

Walking upstairs I heard her talking to someone. Curiously, I walked closer to the not fully closed door and put my ear up against it. She was laughing.

_"Yeah, Mom made her my servant!"_ She paused for a second, where I assumed the person on the other line had said something. _"I know right. First I got her grounded and now she has to wait on me." _She laughed more and I felt the anger rise up inside me. _I knew it. I knew she was __faking._

Furious, I swiftly threw open the door and walked inside, hand on hip, glaring. She gave me a quick look of shock and told Hilary goodbye. _"Got to go Hil, ttyl." _

"You had me running up and down stairs for the last four hours just to make my life more miserable?" I asked in disbelief and she answered with a smirk.

I had to use all my will power to refrain from smacking her silly. Instead I just scoffed. "You're not worth it."

* * *

_Dear Diary,  
I don't know how much longer I will be able to take any of this. Candace and Hilary are making my life worse every chance they get. Mom hates me right now and Mark is just annoyling nice. And blind. Seriously, does he not see how evil his daughters are? How can he not. He's seen the way they dress, they actually try to hit on guys while he's right there. I mean, are they even really related. How can he be so nice and they be so.... them? I'll have to look into that more..._

_But the thing with my mom is really getting to me. I don't know why she's like this, and it's scaring me. We still need each other and we always last thing either of us need right now is for our relationship to fall apart. But I think it already may be to late. Somethings different between us and I don't know how to fix it and it doesn't look like she _wants_ to._

_Well, I'm grounded so I better get back to my chores before she comes home and I get even longer time._

_xoxo,_

_Mitchie_

* * *

I had to unpack the garden supplies and get the plants and flowers Mark and mom had got the other day out of the garage. Making two trips, carrying them to the backyard, I set myself down in front of the patch of soil. I dug a little hole and grabbed the first flower; a morning glory, out of the crate and planted my first flower.

_Only 15 left to do..._

14 flowers later with only two left to do, I pulled back a little and wiped off the beads of sweat forming on my forehead. Sighing heavily, I leaned over again to get back to work.

"Workin' hard there aren't ya?" I heard a voice say form behind me and I jumped up in fright.

I turned around to the laughing of Nate. _Note to self: Scare him bad. A lot. And remember this note to self._

"I believe that is now Nate: 3, Mitchie: 0." He said laughing. "Well, that's because you catch me off guard." I said defensively.

"Thats the defianition of scare." He said smirking.

"Well aren't you Mr. smarty pants." I said smiling slightly and continued digging the hole I was working on.

Laughing, he responded. "Yes I am, thank you very much. But really, I just wanted to return this." I turned back around to find him holding the flour out that I lent him.

"Oh thanks." I said, standing up and dusting myself off.

"Thanks for the flour by the way. And my brothers and I would like to have you and your family over for dinner tonight. As a thank you for the other night and just so you can finish getting settled in without having to worry about feeding yourselves." He explained while handing me the flour.

"Oh, we wouldn't want to impose and plus don't you have you parents and Frankie there? Really, we can do it some other time."

"My mom and dad went home the night of the dinner, Frankie's staying with us for the week and we would love to have you, really."

"Alright, come on in, Mark's just in the kitchen."

"Mark?" He questioned and I sighed and thought of an explanation.

"Did you really date Hannah Montana?" I asked acting dumb.

"OK, I get it. It's one of _those_ things_." _I looked at him and smiled as he smiled back. There was something about Nate. Something genuinely kind that made me feel like if not right now, sometime soon I would be able to trust him with my life and that he could be my best friend. The feeling was nice. Something I was getting used to now. With him, Caitlyn and Meaghan. And maybe sometime soon Jason and Shane. I haven't felt.... safe like that in a long time. Since- well since my dad died.

We walked into the kitchen where Mark was flattening the boxes we had used. "Hello Nate." He greeted cheerfully.

"Hi ." Nate addressed politely.

" Please, call me Mark. What brings you here? Anything you need?" Mark wondered while wiping down the counters.

"I was just bringing back the flour I borrowed the other day." I walked over to the pantry and put it away while Nate continued talking.

"And I was actually wondering if you and your family would like to come over for dinner tonight, just to return the favor, as a thank you."

"Are you sure that's alright?" he asked and Nate nodded certainly.

"Well then we'll be there." He stated happily.

"Great." Nate smiled. "Come over at about 7:00. And it won't be as great as the food Connie made, but our mom made it so it's better than us trying to make anything." He laughed.

After saying goodbye to Mark, he followed me back out into the yard.

"Well I better leave you back to your work. Unless you want any help?" He asked kindly.

"No that's fine. I just have two more left." I answered.

"Oh come on, don't you know never to turn down an offer to help? Besides, I am an awesome Gardener person. I used to help my mom when i was young." He explained while dusting off his shoulders impressively. I laughed and threw the spade to him. He caught it surprised when it hit him gently in the stomach. I laughed more and knelt down, waiting for him to do the same.

He sat down next to me and plunged the spade into the spoil. After bringing up a small pile, it took one of the last two flowers and planted it.

"Wow, you actually did it." I clapped jokingly in his honour.

"You didn't believe in me."He stated feigning shock. I laughed but stopped abruptly when I felt something moist on the side of my face. I turned my head and saw Nate shaking the excess soil out of his hands. I put my own to my face and wipe the dirt off into my hand and throw it back at him. Soon enough, we both were taking hand fulls of dirt from the garden and throwing them at each other.

After ten minutes we called a truce and calmed down. Sitting next to the pool I looked up towards the sky, but my eyes wandered toward one of the windows where I saw Candace staring me down. A concentrated angry look on her face. I smirked slightly, knowing I was getting to her. She narrowed her eyes and before I could see anything else, Nate started talking again.

"No I have to have another shower. Thanks." He said playfully.

"Yeah well you started it." I said reasoning jokingly while trying to rub off the dried dirt on my arms.

"I better get home. I have a lot to do today." He said grunting as he's getting up.

"Thanks for returning the flour. and for the fun. I needed that today." I smiled.

He smiled in return and was walking to the gate. "See you tonight."

"Yeah." I said and he walked out the gate. _Would I be allowed to go? Or would it be part of my grounding to stay home? I hope not, it would be fun to hang out with them. MAybe not wiht Hilary and Candace there but we wouldn't have to be with them the whole time right? _

**Shane's POV**

Coming down the stairs, I ran a hand through my damp hair, trying to help shake out the excess water. I'm reaching the bottom of the steps when Nate comes through the door, covered in... mud?

"Hey." He said noticing me standing there.

"Hi... What's up?" I said looking at him funny."

"Nothing really." He said but laughed when I looked him up and down with a questionable look. "Oh this. I was next door and Mitchie and I were hanging out for a little bit. And we got into a little argument." He chuckled. _He was hanging out wiht Mitchie? I should be doing that. He doesnt like her does he? No he wouldnt do that to me, he knows I like her. Wait, I _just_ came to the conclusion I like her, so how would he know? Crap, know I have to investigate._

"So uh, you're getting to know her?" He asked, trying to hint around the subject subtly.

"Yeah, she's cool." He answered, making his way to the kitchen in which I followed.

"She's pretty too." I added in casually, giving him bait. But he knows me to well. He gave me a look and repsonded while getting a diet coke out of the fridge.

"Relax dude. Me and Mitchie are just friends. I know you like her and besides, even if you didnt, I can tell she's going to be like a sister to me." He shrugged, taking a large gulp of the soda.

"What? Like her? Where did you get that crazy idea from?" I answered laughing nervously trying to act normal.

"Shane, piece of advice; stick to singing, you suck at acting." He said.

"I didnt make it that obvious did I?" _He knows and he's never even been near me when I'm around Mitchie. _

"I saw the way you were smiling when you came back form her house the other day. And you're not as subtle as you thought you were just now. _' OH, shes so pretty and smart and funny and I want to marry her and live happily ever after.' _" He mocked and I walked over to him and 'lightly' punched him in the gut. _That shut you up._ I smirked and walked back into the hall.

"Oh and they're coming over for dinner tonight." He called out to me and I froze on the spot. I ran back into the kitchen. "All of them?" I asked worriedly.

"Yup. That means if you want to get Mitchie to notice you, I would suggest trying to get along with the _whole _family." He suggested.

"Even the crazy stalkers?" I asked sulking.

Nate nodded. " Even the crazy stalkers. Face it, if anything does happen between you and Mitchie, you will be spending time with them too." He reasoned.

"What time are they coming?"

"7:00"

I consulted my watch. _3:23_

I still have a couple of hours but I did tell my mom I would clean the living room before she went back home.I guess I have to get that done sometime.

_6:51. _I'm in my room in front of my mirror checking my hair one last time. I chose not to straighten it tonight, plus I couldn't find my straightener and I didn't have time to look for it. I'll have to talk to Frankie about that later. My outfit was casual hotness. Dark grey skinny jeans with a white polo top. Like I said; casual hotness.

Walking down the stairs, I could smell the lasagna our mom had made for us to heat up. On the last step, the doorbell rang. Taking a quick glance in the hall way mirror I grabbed the knob and turned it. Opening the door revealed Mark with Connie who was carrying plate of chocolate chip cookies. Candace, Hilary and Mitchie were standing behind them. I caught Mitchie's eye and we shared a smile.

"Hi." I welcomed. A course of hellos came my way, I moved aside and gestured for them to come in. They piled in and removed their jackets. Jason and Frankie came down the stairs a minute later and said their hellos.

"Hi, I'm Frankie." He said to Candace. She looked at me and smiled flirtatiously. It is now that I notice what she and Hilary are wearing. Hilary's wasn't that bad. Both had a pari of short shorts with a tank top. Candace had a very _tight _tank top. But Mitchie was decent, well better than decent. She had on a pair of grey skinny jeans with a yellow top.

She lent over so she was almost eye-to-eye with him but not quite. "Hi Frankie. It is _so_awesome to meet you." She said in a baby voice. He pulled a face at this and moved onto Mark and Connie. While they were introducing themselves and Hilary, I took the plate quickly into the kitchen telling Nate they were here on the way out, and walked back into the front hallway and moving onto Mitchie.

"Mitchie!" He said happily jumping into her awaiting arms. She had knelt down to his height and was hugging him back laughing. Once she got up she greeted Jason while Nate had come in and was greeting everybody else.

Mitchie saw Nate and laughed. He returned the joke? Whatever is was... They joined in a one armed hugs on their sides and then she came over to my side.

"Hey." She smiled and small smile.

"Hi. How are you?" I asked making conversation. By now, Nate was leading everybody into the living room to talk before dinner in a few minutes.

"I'm good. You?" She asked glancing at me.

"Good."

"By the way, I'm challenging you to a rematch in super smash brothers." She grinned. I saw her mom looking over at us oddly in the corner of my eye. We were standing in the doorway to the living room while everybody was situated around the room. I laughed and heard the buzzer go off from the kitchen. "Nate Buzzer." I said getting his attention.

" you get everybody set up in the dining room for me please." He said as he got up and walked past Mitchie and I and into the kitchen.

"If everyone could please follow me to the dining room, Nate's just putting on the finishing touches."I explained.

We went into the dining room and everybody chose their seats. Luckily, there was one right next to Mitchie. But also next to Candace...

"Okay, so we have our mom's lasagna, some garlic bread that we got from the bakery and for dessert we have the cookies you brought and a pie we also bought from the bakery." Nate stated while carrying in the lasagna.

He sat down and started passing the food around. While grabbing the basket of bread from Mitchie, our hands brushed against each other and we caught the other's eyes in a smile again.

"So guys, you seem to be home alot latley, are you taking a little break for a while?" Mark asked.

"Oh no, we just have the week off. Catch up on sleep and have some fun for a little." Nate said.

" That's fantabulous! You guys work _soooo _hard. You deserve a nice break." Candace said resting her hand on my arm. It took all I had not to scoff and throw her hand away. But I couldn't. That annoying little vioce in the back of my head kept saying _"remember Mitchie is her sister..."_

So I held in my distaste and smiled politely. As soon as she saw this, her smile widened in satisfaction. Looking proud, she turned back to her barely eaten food. Neither her or Hilary had eaten anything. They don't like the food, which i don't think so because it's delicious, or they don't eat in front of guys. I hate when girls do that, it annoys me that they think we're judging them or something. Mitchie on the other hand, was just finishing clearing her plate this minute.

After dessert, the parents had decided to go back home and leave us kids to hang out. Everything was going OK so far. Thankfully I haven't made an idiot out of myself in front of Mitchie. We were now in the family room watching a movie. "The Princess Diaries." They got three guys watching that chick flick. Stupid Nate and his Stupid "Oh no your the guests, you choose."_ BLAH BLAH BLAH._..

Poor little Frankie. His eight-year-old mind doesn't even get half the relationship stuff that's going on. How mean is Nate to put our little brother through this?

I can't take this anymore. I _need_to get out. Right now, I was squeezed in between Candace and Jason who was sitting next to Frankie. Well at least I wasn't Nate, he and Mitchie were sharing the love seat on either side of Hilary. OK, I need to get out, but how? I can't just get up and leave.

"Um, where's the bathroom?" Mitchie asked. This is my excuse, to both get out of here and spend time with Mitchie alone. "I'll show you." I jumped up eagerly. I gestured for her to follow and went up the stairs. I breathed a sigh of relief as soon as we stepped out the door of the basement.

"Uh, it's just down there." Pointing down the hall. "Last door on the left." I said. She looked down and then brought her eyes up to meet mine.

"I don't really have to go to the bathroom. I just needed to get out of there." She admitted. I laughed and said. "This is my excuse too. To show you where it is. I jst on't get how girls sit through tat. It's so.... _girly_." I said disgusted. She laughed back. "Hey, that is one of my favorite movies. I just can't take watching it, squished between the side of the couch and Hilary. She explained and I looked at her in shock. "OK, so how can you stand to watch that without anybody there?" I asked.

"It's a sweet story. Like a fairytale, girl is sad with her less than perfect life, girl finds out shes a princess and lives happily ever after." She smiled to herself and I couldn't help but smile back at her.

"So I don't want to go back down there, you don't want to. What do you want to do?" She shrugged. A minute later, I aw his a smile light up her face. "I'm still looking for that rematch ." She smirked. _She had a cute smirk.... I have to admit._Sometimes when girls smirked it just looked evil but not Mitchie.

"Let's go Ms...? What's your last name?" I asked wondering.

She laughed and answered. "Torres."

"Well then, you're on ." I smiled. We walked up to Jason's room and set up the game.

It was the battle of the century, we had gone into sudden death on our fourth game. Which I had all won of course. But she was really concentrating this time. I could see it in her expression, she had her game face on and was fighting to win. It wa actually pretty adorable to watch.

"YES! Haha, I won! I won." She started chanting and my head snapped back to the tv screen where "Game Over" was playing on the screen with my character dead on the ground. _Darn it. She did win. _

"Well, I let you win." I said trying to play it off.

She stopped chanting and gave me a look. "Liar." She said playfully and I just grinned cheekily.

"Hey guys." A little voice came from the door way. We turned our heads and saw Frankie standing there with Nate behind him. "You guys have been gone for half an hour we thought you died." Nate said.

"Is the movie over yet?" He shook his head no.

"Then, yeah, we're dead til it is." I said.

"Well I just came up to see what you guys are doing and put Frankie to bed. Also, Mitchie, Jason was talking about going to Six flags tomorrow in Lake George. Hilary and Candace are in, how about you?" We all turned our eyes to Mitchie, awaiting her answer.

"I can't. I'm sort of grounded."She said shyly.

"What? what for?" Nate laughed.

"I may have snuck out the other night." She said.

"Is that why oyu were climbing up the side of your balcony?" A tired Frankie asked.

We looked incredulously at her and she nodded.

"And that's why you were gardening, as part of your punishment?" Nate chuckled. "Wow, and we thought you were a nice girl." He joked. and she shrugged playfully back.

"But seriously, maybe we could talk to your mom. I men we are Connect Three." I said smugly, dusting off my shoulders.

Mitchie laughed. "Good luck with that."

"You underestimate us Torres." I said.

"And you underestimate my mother Grey." She replied back.

Soon after Nate had put Frankie to bed, he forced us to back down stairs to finish the movie. Luckily we only had 10 minutes to go so it wasn't that bad. And I got to sit next to Mitchie this time. Hilary had moved over to sit next to Jason and Candace so that left the love seat free for me Mitchie and Nate. When we finished the movie We offered to walk the girls home so we could also talk to Connie and Mark.

When we walked into their house, Mitchie called out for her mom. A minute later she came downstiars and saw us. "Hello boys, is everything OK?"

"Fine thanks Mrs. Adams." Nate said courteously. It was then I noticed the name. Mitchie said her last name is Torres, didn't she. I'll have to ask her about that when I get to know her more. She seemed pretty hesitant the firs time we talked about it.

"Actually we wanted to talk to you about something. May we go in the living room?" He asked kindly.

"Of course come on in." Hilary and Candace had gone upstairs as soon as we came in, but not before kissing each of us on the cheek. I really had to bite my tongue then. We walked into the living room, Mitchie following, and sat down on the couchs. "Well, we invited the girls to Six Flags tomorrow. To get to hang out more. And we would love for Mitchie to come. But she informed us of... her punishment." He started getting right into it.

"So you want me to let her go with you three boys, to an amusement park tomorrow when she's supposed to be grounded instead?" She asked looking at each of us.

We nodded and she pursed her lips. "Please." I added in. "We'll have them back by dinner." I said for good measure.

"Well, I don't know. A grounding is a grounding." She said and our hope was decreased a little more.

A few more minutes and she looked at us. "Boys," She started.

**A/N: 6,461 words, not including this authors note. This is the longest chapter I have ever written. I was so into writing this week. I think the only day I didn't write a little is Tuesday. Ever other day I was writing bits of this chapter. I know it's not the best cliff hanger but I wanted to get this out today, with a cliff hanger and it's the only one I could think of! I hope you like this chapter, but I have to warn you; I'm going to try focusing on Can't Have You this week so I might not be able to get the next chapter out by next week. I want the chapter for CHY almost as long as this one. Speaking of CHY, I'm still looking for a beta for that story. So if anyone, is interested, I'm looking for someone who can reply back to me within one or two days and can help me with ideas and such. It will be greatly appreciated. Again, thank you all for reviewing and Reading. I can't believe it; 101 reviews.( I just checked again now and there was one more!!). Thanks everyone. I hope you liked this chapter.**

**Oh and Thanks to LowBreeze for mentiong the song "Won't Even Start" in the latest chapter of Video Girl. I am addicted to it now. It's so cute.**

**Won't Even Start- David Choi**

**Laura**


	11. Misinterpertations

**A/N: I do not own anything.**

I was grounded, so of course I wasn't allowed to go. "You think that would be a very fair punishment? Getting to go and hang out with rock stars?" Is what my mother said to me after the boys had failed their attempt to sway her decision.

_Flashback_

"_Boys," she started. "I'm glad that you and Mitchie are becoming friends, but I take my choices very seriously and punishments very seriously. A grounding is grounding and Mitchie made her choice the night she chose to go gallivanting around the town without permission. I'm sorry but maybe some other time." She had told them. And as I looked up at them, I could see the hope fall out of their eyes. They had actually thought they could change her mind, but they don't know my mother. I get my stubbornness from her._

_The boys said politely said they understood and got up to say their goodbyes. I gave each of them a hug and shut the doors behind them. Then turned to face my mother as she started speaking to me._

It was happening already. They hadn't even come home yet and there were the hot topic on Perez Hilton.

"_New love interests for connect three?"_

My eyes skimmed over the article, my lips pulled to a frown as the words went on.

_Connect Three was spotted at six flags today with two unknown girls. After getting spotted, the boys spilt up. Shane going off with one of the girls while Jason and Nate took the other. Sources say that Shane was looking pretty cozy with his lady friend, holding her hand and laughing all throughout the day. While Jason and Nate kept their cool with the other. Uh oh ladies, pictures prove that the lead singer could be very much taken and maybe even tamed, other sources are saying he didn't have his jerk persona that everybody has become so used to with him today. Maybe miss unknown is bringing out the best in him? If so, I say we welcome the change with a standing ovation._

I wouldn't have believed it if not for the pictures of Shane and Candace. Four to be exact. One of Shane and Candace sitting fairly close together eating ice cream. Another of them standing in line laughing. The third was one of Shane holding her hand while pulling her into a picture with fans. And the last one…Shane smiling while Candace gave him a kiss on the cheek. I sighed and closed the laptop. I can't believe I was so stupid; of course he would like Candace… I just thought we were actually- I don't know what I thought. I don't know what to think anymore. I need to clear my head and go see the one who I could always count on. But first I had to get past my mom.

I went downstairs to see my mother making dinner. She glanced up at me and then continued to stir what I assumed to be pasta. "The girls will be back soon. Will you please set the table?" She asked in monotone.

I grabbed plates from the cabinet and placemats from the shelf and began to lay everything out in order on the table. "I know I'm grounded but I was hoping I could go see Dad tomorrow." I got out quickly glancing up under my eye lashes to see my mother frozen over the stove.

"You're grounded." My mother reminded me.

"I know." I said starting to get upset. "But it's dad. I haven't been to see him in weeks."

"Mitchie, what are you thinking? You know I start work tomorrow, you think I'm just going to let you go off on your own to New Hampshire? Are you out of your mind?"

"I could ask Jack to take me. I'm sure he would, he hasn't been since the funeral."

"Mitchie, I'm saying no." She said sternly, finally looking up at me.

"And I'm saying he's my father and I don't need your permission to see him. If you don't let me, I'm going to go anyway."

"Mitchie do not disrespect me like this. Not again! I am your mother and you will do as I say" She began to raise her voice. And I snapped. _This is it_, I told myself. I'm getting everything I need to say out and it could either make or break us.

"Why won't you let me do anything? It's like you hate me or something? You don't trust me to do anything; you treat Hilary and Candace like your own daughters instead of me? And anytime I try to bring up dad, it's like he never even existed!" I shouted, tears starting to fill my eyes. And I didn't stop, the words just kept coming, everything I've wanted to say for months was coming to surface. "Well news flash mom, he did exist! He loved us and you loved him and I loved him! We were this picture perfect family, I couldn't have wished for anything better. But then this freak accident happened and he died and you become this whole different person when I needed you. When we needed to be a family. And then you meet this guy and you get married without even asking me how I feel about anything! Like I didn't matter…" I trailed off and by now I was sobbing.

"We used to be so close, we were best friends but now…. Now we're falling apart and you're not doing anything to stop it." I finished with a large sob caught in my throat. I was gripping the counter to keep myself from falling.

She was just looking at me with a shocked look on her face. The water in the pot was starting to boil over and she turned to fix it. Once again turning her back on me. I just shook my head sadly and walked quietly out of the kitchen.

I went upstairs grabbed my ipod and went out the door. I needed air.

I had walked farther than I've ever been before, I was in an area I didn't recognize but I just kept going I couldn't go back. Not yet. If I was being really honest, I was afraid to. Scared of what is waiting for me when I get back to that place I'm forced to call home. I was still sobbing, just thinking about everything, all the things I just admitted to my mom, thinking about what would be happening right now if my dad were still alive.

Finally I did though. After another hour of walking, turning around when I was met with another park, I went home. As quietly as I could, I slipped through the door without anyone noticing. Trying to dry as many tears as I could I slipped off my shoes. I could overhear the sound of laughter, a deep rumbling and two high pitched squeals. _Great_. Candace and Hilary are back. I walked upstairs and the tears left fell from my eyes involuntarily. I walked over to the doors and opened them, stepping onto the balcony. I sat down in the chair I had set up the other day and let out a deep sigh.

"Are you okay?" I snapped my head to the side in shock.

* * *

I sighed as I climbed into the back seat of the car with Candace following my lead. _This was going to be a long day. _"I am _so_ excited for today! I mean it will be tons of fun. Just the five of us spending the day at an amusement park." Candace said with Hilary nodding along in the seat ahead of us. "But Shane I must warn you, sometimes I get a little bit scared on roller coasters so I'm going to be holding your hand a lot." She winked and laughed. _She's Mitchie's sister_. I remembered and forced a laugh.

The ride was about an hour give or take and I was beyond relieved to get out of the car.

We walked to the front and got our tickets. Deciding where to go first was hard as the boys and I wanted to check out the water park while the girls didn't want to get their hair wet and opted for some ice cream. Wanting to be gentlemen, we agreed with them and went to the food area.

After paying for the frozen treats we retreated to the shady area of tables. Candace squeezed in between Jason and I. Wrapping a claw around my arm, I had to force myself not to squirm and scream 'get off'.

We started off with small talk, asking how the girls were liking the city and about school and stuff. Naturally they started talking about our careers, getting up close and personal. "Wow, so you guys are so popular, you must make tons of money." Hilary stated. "O-m-g Hill, you can't just ask them about money, that's so trampy. Not to mention rude" She said rolling her eyes and shooting Hilary a look. "But now that the topic is up, you guys must be well off. Like any girl would be lucky to be with you." She said batting her eyes at me once again.

"We do alright." Nate said, clearly uncomfortable with discussing money. They giggled and finished off their ice cream.

Jason came back over from throwing out the garbage when he said 'uh I think we've been spotted." He sat back down, tugging at his baseball cap while nodding not so subtly to the girls sitting a few tables away. We all turned our heads to look and in sync, their eyes widened and one shouted "o-m-g- it _is_ them!" They all got up and we looked at each other before we took off running. Candace didn't really take the hint so I grabbed her hand and pulled her up with me. Somehow we managed to get spilt up from Nate and Jason. Of course I was stuck alone with Candace.

We were now just outside the line for "The Tunnel". "I should call Nate and Jase, figure out where they are." I said before searching my pockets for my phone but I couldn't find it. "What's wrong?" She asked weirdly. "I can't find my phone? Dang it I must of left it in the car when I was texting our manager." I said angrily at myself for being so stupid and forgetful. "Do you have your phone?" I asked her with hope. She shook her head and sighed. "Well since we're here, we should check out this roller coaster." She said pointing to the line up. I sighed and decided to make the best of a bad situation. "Sure, why not." I told her.

We got in the line up and waited. And waited. And waited. This was a really long line but a really fun ride so it was worth it. Well not worth having to listen to Candace talk about her hair. We were moving a few feet ahead when a guy started speaking from behind us. "So, who here is bored? I am, I'm going to be your in-line entertainment for the duration of waiting. My name is Freddie. To start off, let's go with an old fashioned knock-knock joke." This guy started in an over exaggerated voice. He was actually pretty funny, and kind of cool for making this a little less boring. "Okay knock-knock," he said and then pointed at me to say the next part. "Whose there?" I asked, playing along. "Owl's." He said simply. "Owl's who?" I questioned. "That's right young lad, owl's who." He gave me a clap on the back and a big grin. I laughed in return at his joke and even Candace was laughing. After a couple more jokes, it was our turn to go on the ride.

It was hard to enjoy the ride with Candace's high pitched scream in my ear and a death grip on my arm. But it was only two minutes so it wasn't too bad. Getting off the ride, we had seen what looked like Jason, Nate and Hilary a little down the way so we tried to hurry and catch up to them. But on the way these little girls came up to me and shyly asked for a picture and autograph. I couldn't deny the little cuties and bent down to their height.

Candace looked a little out of place and I felt kind of bad for her so I decided to be nice and pulled her into the picture with us. She actually gave a smile at being included and for it made me think that maybe she wasn't as bad as I thought. One of the girls' moms snapped a shot and the girls gave me a hug and went on their merry way. I smiled after them and turned to Candace. "Wow, I guess the one bad thing about being a hot superstar like you is having to deal with little brats like them all the time." She said with a disgusted look on her face. That wiped the smile right off my face. _I can't believe I thought for even a second that she was actually okay._ "Come one let's go find the others." I said and felt her grab my hand from behind.

We found them and decided to go check out the water park after a little persuasion getting the girls to agree. We changed into our bathing suits but as the guys and I went to line up for the first ride, the girls hung back. "I forgot I had my camera with me, can we get a quick picture before we get all wet?" Hilary asked smiling. We agreed and asked a park attendant to take the picture for us. We got into position, Hilary in between Jason and Nate, me beside Nate and Hilary on my left. As the guy was counting down, I put a smile on my face and when he got to 'one' I felt something on the side of my face.

A kiss. After the flash, I cranked my head to the left to find Candace smiling flirtatiously at me. I gulped and jumped back, trying not to look too obvious.

After a few hours in the park and some more roller coasters, it was around four thirty when we decided that it was time to call it in.

Luckily Candace got in first so I quickly went to sit in the passenger seat but not before grabbing my phone that had fallen onto the seat form earlier. Jason took to the wheel and Nate sat in the middle with Hilary, leaving Candace all by her lonesome.

It was quiet ride back, thankfully but it took a little longer due to the fact it was rush hour. We got home around six and the girls left after thanking us for the day to go have a family dinner. The boys and I got inside and went to heat up left overs.

After dinner I went up to my room and thought about the day. It wasn't as bad but it would've been better if Mitchie had been there. I really thought Mrs. Addams would change her mind, but Mitchie was right, she had it set. Mitchie knew she wouldn't change her mind, even with Jason, Nate and I sitting there with hope when I looked at Mitchie with her head down looking at the floor, it was obvious she knew how the whole thing would go down.

I felt the need to write, I've been feeling it a lot lately actually. I grabbed my guitar and went to sit under the stars on my balcony. I started to strum random melodies. I stopped for a second just to think. Think about today, I was being nice. Lately, I've just spent my time trying to make everybody miserable. But today, I was trying to make a good impression for Mitchie's sisters… It was nice.

The doors across from mine opened and out came a teary eye Mitchie, She didn't notice me though as she sat down on her chair and sighed. She looked like a wreck. Heartbroken with her bloodshot and swollen eyes, it's clear she has been crying for a while. She looked emotionally drained and just plain exhausted.

"Are you Okay?" I asked worried.

* * *

**A/N: I'm sorry I'm so terrible! I said three months and apparently it's been nine already! I received a review the other day from xtooxcoolxmazzx that reminded me I still have to finish this story. I'm sorry I got my laptop back and a lot went on, I had some family stuff going on and then the summer came and this just wasn't in my head. I had no inspiration. Until today, I got the urge to write and I couldn't stop. I'm a little rusty, so I'm not sure if it's good or not. And I know there was no Shane/Mitchie stuff but there will be next chapter! And there will also be more of Mitchie and Connie talking through everything. I think there will only be a few more chapters and then maybe an epilogue. Not to sure yet but I'm still in the writing mood so I'm going to start chapter 12 write after this! Thank you to everybody who has stuck by this story, I'm sorry for the long wait but hopefully I can get another update by at least the end of this week. Also please if anybody has any ideas on what else I could do in the next/last couple of chapters, anything would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!**

**Laura**


	12. Smile That Could Light Up The Whole Town

**A/N: I do not own anything.**

"Are you okay?"

I looked to my left, shocked to see Shane sitting there with a look of concern etched upon his face. I forced a laugh, embarrassed that I had been caught in my moment of a complete break-down.

"I'm fine, just had a rough night is all." I said getting up to leave.

"Wait, do you want to talk about it? Maybe I can help." He suggested kindly. "I don't want to burden you with my stupid problems." I told him.

"Mitchie, I'm sure there not stupid, besides, I can be a good listener when I want to be. And I don't like seeing you upset." He said smiling gently at me. I was stunned that he was being so sweet to me. I sighed and said. "Alright, I guess." I said sitting down again about to explain my story.

"Wait, let me just come over there." He said setting his guitar down. I looked up about o tell him I would go wait for him by the door downstairs when he started to climb over the side of his balcony. "Shane what are you doing?" I asked scared that he would fall. "It's okay; I know what I'm doing." He said reassuringly.

"Shane you could fall and break your neck!" I said but was moving closer to the ledge so I could help catch him if he were to fall.

He was now crouching on his ledge and was prepping for the jump. Our balconies were only a couple feet apart but still, not enough energy in his jump and he could be falling the 15 feet down to the muddy grass.

"1…2…3!" He counted and at three he jumped and I felt a strong impact as we were both thrown to the ground.

"Ouch." We said in unison then laughed. "Are you okay?" He asked me and I nodded." You?"

"They don't call me 'danger' for nothing." He smiled and lifted himself up, giving me a hand also.

We both settled against the wall of the balcony and looked up into the starry night sky.

"So, talk to Dr. Shane." He nudged my side and I looked at him. "It's long story."

"I have all night." He said.

"It's emotional." I said, trying to give him an out.

"I can be emotional."

"Are you sure you want to hear my sob story?" I asked looking into his eyes.

"Yes, I want to help you feel better. You can tell me anything." He said staring right into my eyes.

"I got into a fight with my mom today. Lately we haven't had the best relationship… See, about seven months ago my Dad died." He raised his eyebrows in shock at this.

"Mark isn't your real dad?" He asked. I shook my head. "That explains why you call him Mark and why you and your mom have different last names." I nodded along as the pieces fell into place for him.

"Are Hilary and Candace your actual sisters then or-"

"No thank god. They're Mark's daughters. I do have a brother though, Jack." I told him

"Jack. Jack…" He suddenly had a look of realization on his face. "That guy we met that night we came over for dinner?" He asked with a small smile.

"Yeah, I guess you did meet him then." I said wondering why he was smiling.

"Anyway, my dad was in a car accident. He swerved to avoid hitting a deer in the road when he was driving home one night and… he died. After that my mom and I just kept to ourselves. I had no idea what to say to her or how to do anything anymore. But then about two months after the funeral, she came home with a smile on her face. Apparently, Mark had been a client of her catering company a few months before, she didn't think anything of him but then he came back for more business one day and they got to talking and at some point they started going out. A month later they were married. I had two new step-sisters that I can't stand. And I had said barely four words to my mom." I said tears once again filling my eyes. _Geez and I thought I had used all of them up._

"I'm sorry about your dad. I couldn't imagine how hard it must have been for you, especially with your mom and you straying apart at the same time." He said with his condolences.

"That's just it, once she and Mark started going out she spent all the time she could with him. I felt like I had lost her too. And one day she comes home and tells me that she's engaged and she's getting married two weeks from then. Three months after the supposed 'love of her life' had died. She was moving on and I knew she would have sometime I just didn't expect it to be so soon. And the way she was acting… it was like she was never married to my dad. After she got engaged she took down all the pictures of him." I said as tears fell from from swollen eyes, more memories just kept popping up in my mind.

"I remember this one time… It was me, my mom and Mark having dinner a few nights before the wedding and she had made this lasagna. I mentioned that it was Dad's favorite and she gave me this look, I don't even know how to describe it then Mark changed the subject after a few minutes of awkward silence." I finished.

"Was that what the fight was about today with your mom?" He asked.

"I told her that I wanted to go to the cemetery back in New Hampshire tomorrow. She said she didn't think that was a good idea and said no. Then I blew up, I said everything I've been keeping bottled up for the last seven months. It felt good to get things off my chest but I don't know. I think I just ruined everything." I finished with a sob escaping my throat.

"Maybe not, what did she say?"

I laughed with no humor and responded. "The pasta started to boil over so she turned away, not bothering to answer. I just left after that."

"I'm sure it's not what you think. Death is a hard thing to deal with. Everybody deals with it in their own way; maybe your mom's way is to not think about it. To try and forget about it. It may not seem right to you but maybe that's all she knows how to do." He said.

I smiled. "I never thought about it that way before. I should try and talk to her tomorrow." He nodded and said he thought that was a good idea.

"Thank you. It really means a lot to me that you sat here and listened to everything. I really appreciate it." I said genuinely.

"Anytime, I hope I helped." He said smiling at me.

"You did. A lot."

"Good." He said.

"So," I tried to say casually. "Did you have fun today?"

"Well it would've been better if you were there." He said. "Well it looks like you were happy with Candace. Haven't you read _Perez Hilton_ yet?" I joked.

"What? It was talking about her and me? As in together?" He looked grossed out but who could blame him. "Great…" He sighed. Why was he so disappointed? _Unless…_

"What? Do you not like her or something?" I asked trying to disguise the hope in my voice.

"No offense but I can't stand her. And Hilary is just like her lap dog of something." He said shaking his head.

"Ugh I know. She does everything she says. Can she not think for herself?" I agreed.

"So you don't like them at all?" he asked. I shook my head vigorously and we laughed.

"They make my life hell." I said. "Well then one day, we should get back at them." He suggested, "You know switching their shampoo with jelly or something that they'll hate." He laughed.

"It's so on." I said grinning wildly back at him. A moment after that I thought I heard my door shut but as I looked back, nothing was disturbed. _Must've been my imagination._

"Good." He smiled back at me and for a few minutes we were just staring into each other's eyes. "Umm…." He cleared his throat and looked away. "So do you still plan on going tomorrow?" He asked softly.

"I think so; I just need to get away, at least for a few hours. And going to see my dad helps me think clearly.

"If you want company, I could- you know, if you want someone there with you I could come along… It would be better if you had someone with you just incase anything happened. But I don't know maybe you were going to ask Jack…." He said stuttering and nervously.

"No, that would be great. Only if you want to though, you don't have to come." I said smiling slightly.

"No I want too." He said looking at me.

"Thanks." I said. "What time do you want to leave?" I asked.

"I'll pick you up at 8?" He questioned and I nodded. We needed an early start if we were going to go to New Hampshire and back all in one day.

"Okay, it's getting late; I should get some sleep if I'm going to be up bright and early tomorrow." He said standing up.

"Maybe you should use the front door now, there's no one to catch you this time." I laughed. "Besides everyone should be in their rooms by now."

"Okay. I'll be here tomorrow morning for our super awesome fun adventure day." He smiled excitedly before leaving my room quietly.

* * *

**Shane's POV**

I tip toed away from Mitchie's room as quietly as I could thinking about all that happened. I felt bad for Mitchie, going through all that, it explains so much. Why she's so bitter around Mark. And I'm glad she told me. It means she trusts me, not a lot of people do these days… But I helped her, and at least she said I did. I can't wait for tomorrow. Just the two of us, it's going to be fun.

I was just stepping off the stairs when someone cleared their throats behind me. _Busted._ I thought worriedly to myself. I turned around to come face to face with Connie.

"Hi." I said lamely, expecting a lecture.

"Did she tell you about her Dad? And all that happened?" She asked softly, and looking carefully in the dim light of the hallway I could see tears in her eyes.

I nodded. "You must think I'm terrible." I shook my head. "No, I don't. A lot happened, and I'm certainly not one to judge anybody's behavior." I tried making her feel better.

"Please understand there are two sides to every story. And I certainly didn't mean to hurt Mitchie or belittle her in any way. I just didn't know what to do after… everything was just happening so fast." I nodded slowly.

"You don't have to explain anything to me, but you should talk to Mitchie soon. She thinks she messed everything up between you two." I said and she nodded. "I will let her sleep tonight and talk to her tomorrow."

"I'm taking her to New Hampshire tomorrow. I know you didn't want her to go but I think she needs this. And I didn't want her going alone so I offered, I'll keep her safe and I'll have her home by tomorrow night. I hope that's okay?" I said explaining my self and the situation to her gently.

"Yes it's okay. Thank you Shane." She said kindly and I smiled at her." Goodnight." I told her. We walked to the door together and as I was walking out her voice stopped me once more.

"She's smiling again." She said and I look back to her in confusion. "She has this beautiful bright smile that could light up the whole town and I haven't seen it since before her father died. But it's happening a lot more with you now. I missed that smile. Thank you." She said as a tear slid silently down her cheek.

I nodded dumbly and turned to walk away. I smiled a little at the thought of the beautiful grin I saw tonight.

* * *

**A/N: Okay sorry meant to get this posted a little earlier but oh well. Hope you liked it. Next chapter; Road Trip! hahaha I'm excited to write it, if you want to see something specific happen review and say what you want to read:P Hopefully I'll have the next chapter out in the next week or two. **

**xoxo,**

**Laura**


	13. Closure

**A/N: I do not own anything.**

**

* * *

**

"And you're sure you have everything you need?" Shane asked once again, while putting the key in the ignition. I pulled my seatbelt over my body and nodded in confirmation. "Certain, we're good to go."

He put the car in reverses and backed out of his drive way. It was an early morning, we decided it would be better time-wise to get an earlier start so instead of taking off at eight; we're up bright and early at seven o'clock on this crispy, cool fall morning.

"So, it's been a while since I've been on a real road trip in something smaller than a tour bus. Let's play some games." Shane started, in a super excited voice, I just had to laugh.

"Alright, how about the theme song game?" I suggested.

"Which ones that again?" He asked with a cute puzzled look on his face.

"One person hums a theme song and the other person tries to guess what it is. Here I'll go first." I said quickly thinking up a song.

"_mm, mm-mm , mm , mm-mm ,mmmm" _

"Uhhh, hint." He said

"It's a show about doctors." I said, I thought giving him a dead give-away.

"Oh! That show, uh- um, Blue's Analysis!" He said with pride and I turned my head as my jaw dropped. _Blue's Analysis?_

"Do you mean _Grey's Anatomy_?" I asked laughing at the name he came up with.

"Yeah, that's the one I meant. I was close." He said turning to give me a smile, one that I couldn't help but return.

"Okay, okay, my turn."

"_do do, do- do do do, duh do do do do do duh do duh duh duh do do…"_

"Flintstones!" I said with glee.

"Pfft, lucky guess."

"I'm done with this game, how about some music." He said, switching the radio on and turning the volume up. "Wannabe" by the Spice Girls was playing.

"I love this song." I exclaimed and he looked at me like I was a monkey.

"What, old school pop is awesome."

"Come on Mitchie, I'm losing respect for you right now." He said and I playfully slapped him on the shoulder letting him change the station. Some heavy metal song was playing and he immediately started bobbing his head in time with the music.

I gave him a look that said 'seriously?' "You like this? Is this even music?"

He laughed and explained himself. "I was like that when I first heard it but if you actually take the time to listen to it, it grows on you. I actually only really like this one band but still." He said grinning at me. I changed the station and smiled when I heard "Milk" by Kings of Leon playing.

"You like Kings of Leon?" Shane asked me sounding surprised.

"Love them, especially this song. And The Bucket. Why do you look so surprised?"

"I don't know, just doesn't seem like the kind of music you'd listen to. Plus, some people don't like the vocals; they think it's too raw or whatever. I love it though." He explained.

"Me too." I quietly started to sing along to the lyrics.

"_Salty Leave,_

_Stay for me_

_Stay for me_

_We drank wine in the matinee_

_And the spotlight showed what I chased away"_

I looked over to see Shane glancing back at me every few seconds with and unreadable expression on his face.

"What?" I asked slightly self conscious.

"You sing?" He asked. "Kind of. Just for fun though, and definitely not in front of a lot of people." I told him.

"You sound really good."

I blushed and looked down at my lap. "Thanks."

"You're cute when you blush." I was probably as red as a tomato now then. As well as being speechless.

* * *

We had been driving for a while now only stopping once to pick up some flowers, playing various car games and 20 questions. I haven't felt this happy in a long time.

We made it to the cemetery around one. As we pulled into the pathway that led throughout the area, I began to feel nervous. I directed Shane where to go. Even though I hadn't been there in a while, I knew this place like the back of my hand. Soon the car was stopped and I couldn't move. Memories of the last time we were here flooded my mind and tears began to swell in my eyes. I barely registered Shane coming around the front and opening my door. Once again he held his hand out and I slowly took it. I stepped out and looked around.

Right up ahead of us was where his grave was. He was resting in the same area where some of other relatives lay. I slowly walked over and saw his name. Letting go of Shane's hand, I knelt down, the flowers we had bought before in my hand, and placed them on his grave. I ran a hand over the name on the headstone and quietly said "Hi dad."

"I'll give you some time alone." Shane told me before silently walking away, back towards to car.

"I miss you…"

After a little more time with my dad I said my goodbyes and walked back to the car. Shane looked up at me when I sat down. "That was something I've needed to do for a while now. Thank you for bringing me Shane."

He nodded his head in understanding and began the car. I looked back out the window at the grave one last time and sighed. I really did need that.

* * *

"Come on let me drive, pretty please?" I said giving him my best puppy dog pout. We had just made a quick pit stop and I felt the urge to drive, rather then just sitting there.

"Mitch, this car is my baby." He said purposely avoiding looking at me.

"Are you saying you don't trust me?" I said adding a whimper to my voice. I was so close to getting him to crack.

"That's not what I meant," He backtracked, finally looking at me, "I just…" He sighed and pulled the keys out of his pocket, throwing them to me. I did a little happy dance and ran around to the driver's side. Shane begrudgingly got in the passenger side and started back seat driving before I had even put the key in the ignition.

After telling him I can drive perfectly well, I took off, keeping the speed under the limit. It didn't really matter though, we were practically in the middle of nowhere, we couldn't see anything but trees for miles ahead of us and there hadn't been another car in sight for about a half hour.

The sun was close to setting, the sky was a beautiful blend of orange and blue and there was a light breeze causing the trees to sway above us. Shane was quietly singing along to the radio and texting Nate back telling him our whereabouts.

Out of nowhere a huge blur of brown came running out in the middle of the gravel road. Out of reflex I swerved to avoid hitting it. Flashes of my dad and the night the police came to our house to deliver the news popped into my thoughts. I stomped on the break as we came onto the grass a couple feet from the tree line.

I was frozen in my upright position, my hands at the ten and two position on the wheel, clutching the wheel tightly like there was no tomorrow. Shane had his hands on the dashboard in front of him, a shocked and worried expression on his face while looking at me cautiously.

"Are you okay?" He asked gently.

I didn't know if he meant physically or emotionally. I looked out the driver's window to see the brown blur- now identified as a deer- dashing into the other side of the forest. I let out a laugh. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Shane's mouth open slightly as his eyebrows rose in confusion. I continued to laugh as I thought about it.

A deer just ran out in front of me as I was driving and I swerved to avoid it. The exact same thing that happened to my father. The only difference is I survived and he didn't. I didn't really understand why I was laughing; I guess just the bitter irony of it.

"I'm sorry, I'm fine. How about you?" I asked calming down slightly.

"I'm good. You sure you're okay?" He double checked.

"Yeah. I'm alright." I looked into his eyes and smiled.

Shane took over driving again and I went back to staring out the window. We pulled over soon to make a quick stop for some food, not having eaten in a few hours. Shane came over and pulled open my door for me. "Thank you kind sir." I playfully curtsied and he bowed in response. I laughed lightly and grinned as he took hold of my hand. Together we walked hand in hand to the building.

* * *

"I don't remember the last time I had this much fun with a girl." Shane said out of the blue. We were sitting out on the top of the hill we had seen while driving. It over looked a football field where it looked like there were kids playing a game of touch football. We decided to take a quick break from driving and were now looking up at the night sky filled with stars.

"Awe what? Did you only now just discover we don't have cooties?" I joked and he laughed along.

"No it's not that. It's just; sometimes it's hard to find people you can really trust. Lately I've only met people who want me for something other than me. It's either Shane's money or Shane's fame. It's never just Shane." He explained, a somber look climbing onto his face.

"I'm sorry. It must be really hard never knowing if people like you for you, or who you are." I said.

"Yeah, but not now. You're a really incredible person Mitchie. I feel like I can really trust you." He said genuinely looking into my eyes as he turned over so he was lying on his side facing me.

"I feel the same way." I said returning the smile. "You're pretty incredible too. And I just wanted to say thank you again for talking with me last night. It really helped." I said copying his movements and turning on my side.

"Anytime." He said. He started leaning a little closer and I did the same. He gently raised a hand to my cheek and slowly brought us closer together. I closed my eyes and the feel of his breath on my face told me how close he was and then he closed the gap between them. The kiss was soft and gentle. After a few seconds we pulled away just stared into each others eyes, smiling.

* * *

I smiled at Shane and stepped out of the car onto my driveway. I couldn't stop smiling, not as I walked up the pathway to the house. Not as I entered and threw my bag down onto the table in the front hall, only did my smile falter when I saw my mom sitting in the living room waiting for me.

"Hey." I said softly. Coming into sit next to her.

"I loved your father, with everything I had." She started, tearing up slightly. "When the police came to our house and said that he had died, I broke. I couldn't believe it, I didn't want to. It felt like a dream. I felt so lost and I didn't want to do anything because I felt like if I did, it wouldn't be just a dream anymore and I needed it to be a dream. I needed to feel like I was just going to wake up and see him again. But it sunk in. That he was really gone and I realized I had two children to take care of. So I decided I would be strong for you and Jack. And I thought that being strong meant I couldn't break down, I couldn't cry out of the blue like I had been doing. But I couldn't stop that, so I didn't realize how I had distanced myself from you when we needed each other the most.

I was in a bad place, and I needed to snap out of it because if I didn't then I would only sink further and I couldn't let that happen. So I tried to move past it. I thought it would be easier if there were no reminders of what happened, if it wasn't mentioned. So I took down the photos and I went back to work and I did the best I could to continue on with my life. I thought it could work for you too, to help you move past it.

And then I met Mark. And he made me smile again. He made me laugh, and he could relate to what I was going through. It was fast, the relationship, I know. But I do love him. And I know it might seem like I'm betraying your father, but he wouldn't have wanted us to be mourning him for the rest of our lives, never living our lives again. It may have seemed so soon after the accident but Mark helped me through, he was what I needed. I will always love your father, there is no way I could ever forget him, nor would I want to. He was my first love. I experienced a lot with him; he gave me everything I could've wanted. And he gave me you and Jack." She paused to let out a small watery smile while looking up at me. Tears were rolling down my cheeks listening to her talk about this.

"I know I might seem like I never want you to do anything with your life but that's only because I feel like one of these days, if I let you go and do something, someone will show up here late at night and tell me something has happened to you too. And I couldn't live with myself if anything happened to you. You're my baby girl. I love you so much and I am so sorry for putting you through all this. I know I was selfish and I know it only made it harder for you, I wish I could take it back but I can't. I can only say that I am so sorry and I hope you will find it in your heart to forgive me." She said full on crying now and looking at me with pleading eyes.

I let out a sob and threw my arms around her, crying into each other's arms. This is what should've happened a while ago, but as she said, we can't take it back. We can only move forward and that's what I plan to do.

"I forgive you. I love you mom, so much." I said into her shoulder. Finally, we can go back to the way we were. I made a decision right then and there to give Mark a chance, because that's what my mom wants. And that's what my dad would want to.

Today was a good day.

* * *

**A/N: I know I am so sorry. It has been a lot longer than I hoped it would be. I think this is my favorite chapter of the entire story. It was all about closure.**

**Special thanks to mmg1195 for the idea about Mitchie driving and almost hitting the deer. That was a really important part of the storyline for this chapter so thanks for the inspiration!**

**There's probably only more chapter left of this. It might take a while, not quite sure what I want to happen exactly yet so please bare with me.**

**I hope everyone had a good holiday. And Happy New Year!**

**~Laura**


	14. The End

**A/N: Sorry it has been so long. It was partly because time got away from me and partly because I have lost my enthusiasm for Camp Rock stories. But I promised myself I would finish this story and since there is only one chapter left- I am pulling my thoughts together and trying to come up with a decent way to end it. Thank you to everybody who had reviewed, favourited, or even just read this story. This is my most successful story that I have published so far and I enjoyed writing it. **

* * *

It's been five months since I visited my dad's grave in New Hampshire. Five months since I finally talked to my mom about how I had been feeling. Five months since I first kissed Shane Gray.

A lot had happened in those few months. My mom and I are back to the relationship we used to have. She quickly became my best friend again and now we make sure we really talk about anything that's bothering either of us. I kept my word on giving Mark a chance and I have come to learn that he is actually an okay guy. He does not try to be anything other than a friend to me which makes me happy that he understands I'm not going to be calling him 'dad' anytime soon.

Even my relationship with Candace and Hilary had gotten somewhat better. We are by no means the best of friends but we've made an unspoken agreement to not get in each others way. We mostly ignore each other, allowing the others to live their own lives and when we must interact, we do so politely and as quick as possible. There are those rare times when we watch a movie or TV show together in peaceful quiet and acceptance or even hold a conversation between the three of us. There don't happen that often, and are about nothing other than what someone did that day- but they were a start.

Of course, they only began acting this way after a stern family talking to. My mother and Mark sat us all down a couple of days after my return and told us that the strained ways we had gone on living before would not work anymore. We are a family- dysfunctional and not all blood related- but a family no less. We could not treat each other like one of us didn't deserve to be here and we do not put the others down.

We all agreed. It had been annoying getting yelled out and grounded beforehand just to spite them and apparently it hadn't been so fun to see me cry. None of this is important though, what's important is that, things had gotten so much better.

I am still hanging out with Caitlyn and Meghan every once in a while. We have gotten to be good friends and they were definitely been a big help during the first couple weeks at my new school.

And of course, how could I forget to mention Shane. Connect Three had gone on another tour again at the start of September. Before that, Shane and I had gotten closer. We didn't define our relationship, not once we found out he was going on tour again, but we spent a lot of time together- just the two of us- and there were a few more kisses shared during the weeks before he started traveling. It's been about four months since he left for tour but we took to texting and calling each other at least once every other day. But today is the day that they are coming back. Their last show took place in Salt Lake City last night and they took the red-eye to JFK this morning. It was now noon and I was eagerly awaiting the sight of a black SUV to turn around the corner of our street.

I was sitting on my bed facing the window just to keep an eye out but also playing my guitar. Since I got all my feelings out, my song writing has been a little less… depressing than it had been before. I am writing silly love songs and ballads instead of fast, sharp, angry songs. I am currently working on a song I started the other day entitled "Catch Me".

"_you're so hypnotizing, you've got me laughing while I sing, you've got me smiling in my sleep, and I can see this unraveling, your love is where I'm falling but please don't catch me."_

Of course, it was about Shane. All the things I've written the last couple of months have been about him.

"Mitchie," I heard my name along with a knock on my bedroom door and turned around to see Hilary poking her head in. "Lunch is ready." I nodded and she smiled, leaving with my confirmation that I would be down in a minute.

I sighed and put my guitar in its stand. Walking downstairs, I realize just how hungry I am. I get to the table just as my mom is setting the plate of hot dogs down.

I'm halfway through my second one, with Mark telling a funny story about his boss at work when the doorbell rings. I glance at the clock behind the stove and see that it's almost quarter to one. Just around the time Shane, Nate and Jason should be getting home. In all my excitement, I dropped the rest of my hot dog and shoot up out of my seat exclaiming "I'll get it!" along the way.

I pretty much sprint towards the door and quickly slow down and get my head together before opening the door. I put on a big smile and Shane is revealed to be standing there with an equally big smile.

As is possible, his smile grows as he sees me and I jump into his arms. He wraps his arms around my waist and hugs me back tightly. He picks me up and spins me around a few times before setting me back down on my feet.

"I've missed you so much." He smiles, looking down at me. My heart jumps a little and I get little butterflies in my stomach.

"I missed you too." He leans down a little and gently presses his lips against mine. I missed this too. It's been awhile since I last kissed him and I forgot how good it felt. We pulled away and I invited him in.

After getting reacquainted with the rest of my family, we go upstairs to my room to hang out some more ("leave the door open" my mom embarrassingly reminded us). He quickly spots my guitar in the corner and picks it up, strumming a few chords before handing it to me as I sit back down on my bed.

"Do I finally get to hear a song? It could be like a welcome home present!" He asked me. Before he left for tour, he found out about my writing but I had refused to play him anything. Mostly because what I had written was kind of dark or the stuff before that was young and silly.

In a brief moment of consideration, I decided on playing him "Catch Me". I began strumming and he grinned at his successful attempt of getting me to play.

"_I'm giving up so just catch me."_

I finished the last chord and was met with his applause. "Mitchie, that's brilliant. I can't believe you wrote that." He smiled while I blushed. "Is it about anyone special?" He asked coyly with a knowing smirk.

"No, just some ego maniac." I teased.

He let out a feigned gasp and scoffed in return before letting his smile slip out. He grabbed my hand and helped pull me help while mentioning that Nate and Jason wanted me to come and see them too.

Later that night, Shane and I were out in my backyard with our feet in the pool. We were sitting closely together and talking about nothing in particular, holding hands.

"Mitchie," his tone turned serious. "I missed you a lot while I was gone. I really liked getting to know you these past couple of months and I like spending time with you." He said.

"I feel the same way."

"Would you be my girlfriend? I know it's kind of like we already are dating, or at least I think of it that way, I don't know about you but I just want to make it official…" He started to ramble and I cut him off quickly with a "yes!"

"Really?" He double checked, smiling and I nodded happily in response before he pulled me in for a kiss.

Shane asked me to be his girlfriend precisely two and a half weeks ago. Considering he was a world famous pop- sorry- rock star, we decided it would be best to keep our relationship on the down low. I wasn't ready to be shoved into the spotlight and he didn't want the paparazzi invading my privacy. We let only our close friends and family know and they were all supportive and happy for us. Candace and Hilary even seemed happy for me, which definitely showed how much our relationship has grown in the past couple of months.

* * *

I was hanging out with Shane, Nate and Jason when I got a text from Jack. He had been away in Europe for the last couple of weeks so he had yet to respond to my text of my new boyfriend news.

_From Jack:P_

_Congrats sis, I suppose, He better treat you right. Actually, I want to meet this super duper rock star boyfriend of yours, bring him to dinner at my place on Saturday. I can get to know him some more. _

I looked up at Shane who was sitting with his arm around me. "Jack wants me to bring you over to his place for dinner on Saturday, is that okay?"

"Jack? His place for dinner? Saturday, that soon?" He looked kind of nervous suddenly. I thought that was kind of odd, they have met before.

"Yeah, what's wrong? You've met him before." I reminded him.

"Yes but that was different, we weren't dating then. I wasn't a threat then, he probably wants to check me out right now. What if he hits me?" He looked really nervous and I did my best to reassure him.

"Shane, relax, it will be fine. He's not going to hurt you, he just wants to get to know the guy who is dating his little sister better. You have nothing to worry about. Trust me." I said before pecking him on the cheek.

"Okay, but if he hits me, I'm going to say 'I told you so'". He said looking only slightly more reassured.

I laughed and agreed.

_To Jack:P _

_We'll be there, Saturday night, 6 o'clock_

* * *

Saturday came quickly and I had to keep reassuring Shane that no harm would come to him that night.

We made our way to the inner city and were outside the door of Jack's apartment.

"Hello." He said as soon as he opened the door. "Come on in." He said once again in clipped tones. I glanced at Shane to see him looking just as nervous as ever.

We went in and took our jackets off and sat together hand in hand on the couch while Jack took the seat opposite us.

We sat in silence for a few minutes, a very awkward silence. I couldn't believe Jack; he was trying to freak Shane out. I don't see why he's doing this; he met before and seemed to like him.

"What are your intentions with my sister?" Jack finally asked and my eyes widened at the blunt question.

Shane looked up and gulped. "Well, I like your sister very much," he started nervously. "And it seems as though she feels the same way," once again he glanced at me for reassurance and I laughed lightly at him before nodding. He starts again but more strongly this time. "I like spending time with her. I hope I make her just as happy as she makes me." He finished with a smile directed towards me.

Jack nods while looking as though he's considering this then turns towards me. "Mitchie, does he make you happy?" I nod. "Does he treat you well?" Another, more enthusiastic nod. "Then I suppose I accept this and I am happy that you to are together." Shane and I both let out a huge sigh of relief.

"Man, you're kind of scary, you know that." Said Shane, visibly more relaxed.

"Well, I had to make sure you were treating my sister the war she deserves to be treated." He said while letting out his first smile since we had gotten there.

The rest of the evening went smoothly, Jack and Shane seemed to get along really well and by the end of the night we left with smiles on our faces. It was nice to be with my brother and my boyfriend: two of my best friends.

Shane walked me to my doorstep when we got back and I turned to him, my hands in his. "See, it wasn't that bad was it?" I smiled.

"It was really fun; I liked getting to know your brother. You guys are a lot alike you know." He said wrapping his arms around my waist.

"Are you saying you like him better than me?" I joked. He rested his forehead against mine and softly said "I don't think I can like anyone better than you."

At his words, I smiled. "I'm really glad I moved here. I was in a really bad place, and if I hadn't met you, I would probably still be there, or maybe even in a worst place." I confided honestly.

"I'm glad I could help, and also thank you for helping me too. I wasn't exactly the best person before you came. I'm really happy that you came into my life." He kissed me deeply before pulling away once again.

"Do you know what it's like to feel really lost?" I asked quietly.

"Yeah, I do. Do you still feel that way?" He asked, looking me in the eye.

"No," I grinned broadly. "I feel happy."

* * *

**The End!**

**Final A/N: Well, there it is. I hope that ending was satisfactory for all the readers. I wanted to show how much her life has changed and how much better it had gotten and I also threw in a few cheesy moment between her and Shane**** Once again, I would like to thank you for reading the story. I know the updates took awhile, I can't believe it's been almost three years since I started this story. Thank you!**

**Xo, Laura **


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